Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ezekiel 1:4
And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire enfolding itself, and a brightness [was] about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
4. God appears in cloud and storm: clouds and darkness are round about him, Exo 9:24; 1Ki 19:11; Job 38:1; Psa 50:3.
out of the north ] In Psalms 29 the theophany also comes from the north, and passes southward to the desert. The idea of the prophet can hardly be that the “place” or abode of God, from which he now comes, is situated in the northern part of the earth, for he saw “the heavens opened” ( Eze 1:1). In other places he refers to Eden, the garden of God (Eze 28:13, Eze 31:8-9) for which he appears also to use the name “mount of God” (ch. Eze 28:14; Eze 28:16), though without indicating any locality for it, but it would be very precarious to bring these passages into any connexion with the present one. When Jehovah leaves the city (ch. Eze 11:23) his glory passes out by the East gate and stands over the “mountain which is on the East side of the city,” the mount of Olives; and when he returns to the new temple he enters by the same east gate, which therefore is to remain for ever shut (Eze 43:2, Eze 44:2). In Isa 14:3 the king of Babylon resolves to seat himself in the mount of assembly, in the recesses of the north, above the stars of God; but whatever this passage means it has no reference to the God of Israel. On the other hand the idea that the theophany appears to come from the north because the north was the region from which the enemies of Israel, the instruments of God’s vengeance, were to advance, is altogether to be rejected. The theophany here is not a manifestation of God specially in the character of an avenger or judge; he does not appear to the prophet as inflamed with anger. The theophany no doubt expresses the prophet’s conception of God, but it is his conception of God as he is in himself and in his nature, not as he is in preparation for any signal act of judgment. This is conclusively shewn by the fact that the theophany here, and that when Jehovah appears for the destruction of Jerusalem (ch. 8 11), and when he again appears to enter the new Jerusalem and make his abode in the new temple (ch. 43) are all identical, according to the statement of the prophet: “and the appearance was like the vision which I saw when I (? he) came to destroy the city, and like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar” (Eze 43:3).
a fire infolding itself ] lit. taking hold of itself. The meaning appears to be that the fire incessantly gave out flames or flashes. The expression is suggested by the zigzag, chainlike flash of the thunderbolt.
brightness was about it ], i.e. about the whole phenomenon of storm and cloud; though a great cloud it was illuminated all round by the continuous flashing of fire within it.
colour of amber ] Perhaps look, glance (Heb. eye) of amber. The word rendered “amber” is of uncertain meaning. LXX. renders elektron, which probably was some very brilliant metal, usually supposed to be an amalgam of gold and silver.
out of the midst of the fire ] The words seem an explanation of the preceding phrase “out of the midst thereof.” But this phrase more naturally refers to the whole phenomenon, as in Eze 1:5. The words are wanting in LXX. and may be a gloss. If genuine they might go along with amber: like amber out of the midst of fire, as Rev 1:15, “like fine brass burning in a furnace.” This is not quite natural, neither is it natural to take “fire” here in a general sense of the great light caused by the fire ( Eze 1:13, ch. Eze 10:2; Eze 10:6). Probably the words are a marginal gloss referring the expression “out of the midst thereof” to the fire, while in fact it refers to the whole whirlwind and cloud. The prophet immediately proceeds to describe in detail the four living creatures, the wheels the firmament and throne. No one of these can be the thing compared to electrum, because each of them is compared to something else. It seems that the combined effect produced by these, the look of the whole manifestation within the tempestuous cloud, the chariot, living creatures and the like, was a splendour like that of electrum. When the prophet looked more narrowly the general splendour resolved itself into these individual things, living creatures, wheels and so on.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
4 28. The theophany, or, vision of God
This is described first generally, as a whirlwind and great cloud coming from the North, with a luminous splendour around it, due to a fire sending out continuous flashes within it ( Eze 1:4).
Secondly, more particularly that is described which appeared within the storm-cloud ( Eze 1:5-28). This was the chariot of God, in which he rode, descending to the earth and moving from one place to another (cf. ch. 10). This chariot is represented as foursided. On each of the four sides was a living creature of human shape, with outstretched wings. Also on each of the four sides, beside each of the living creatures there was a wheel. The living creatures are not represented as having any platform or basement under them on which they stand; the wheels are usually said to be “beside” them, in ch. Eze 10:2 “under” them. The wheels are to be conceived as at right angles to each of the four sides of the chariot, presenting their rims to the four points of the compass.
Above the heads of the four living creatures, or over their wings when horizontally expanded, was a firmament of crystal. Above the firmament was the appearance of a throne. And upon the throne the appearance of one like fire, encircled with a glory which was like the rainbow in the day of rain.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Out of the north – From this quarter the Assyrian conquerors came upon the holy land. The vision, though seen in Chaldaea, had reference to Jerusalem, and the seer is to contemplate judgment as it is coming upon the holy land. Others consider the words expressive of the special seat of the power of Yahweh. The high mountain range of Lebanon that closed in the holy land on the north naturally connected to the inhabitants of that country the northern region with the idea of height reaching to heaven, from which such a vision as this might be supposed to come.
Infolding itself – Forming a circle of light – flames moving round and round and following each other in rapid succession, to be as it were the framework of the glorious scene.
Amber – The original word occurs only in Ezekiel. The Septuagint and the Vulgate have electrum, a substance composed by a mixture of silver and gold, which corresponds very well to the Hebrew word. The brightness, therefore, is that of shining metal, not of a transparent gum. Render it: out of the midst thereof, like Eze 1:7 burnished gold out of the midst of fire.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Eze 1:4
A whirlwind came out of the north.
Divine revelations in seasons of trial and perplexity
The history of the Jews was a succession of startling paradoxes. Their worst disasters ushered in their proudest successes. At three several crises in their career–in youth, in middle life, in old age–they came into collision with three giant empires of the ancient world–Egypt, Babylon, Rome. Each time they were crushed, almost annihilated, by the conflict. Yet each time they started up into a fresh and more vigorous life. Their unmaking was in each case a making anew. As a paradox, the Babylonian captivity was the most striking of the three. Blow follows upon blow, until the tale of their misery is full. The last company of exiles is deported; the last scion of royalty is a prisoner; the last breach in the fortress is stormed. The city is laid waste; the temple is a heap of stones. All is over. The sweet minstrelsies of the sanctuary jar cruelly on their ears now. The very name of Sion is a bitterness to them. And meanwhile, in this their helpless, hopeless misery, they are confronted with the most gigantic, awe-inspiring power which the world had hitherto seen. If at that crisis any calm and impartial bystander had been asked whether of the two–Babylon or Israel, the master or the slave–held in his grasp the future destinies of mankind, would he for a moment have hesitated what answer he should give? And yet out of the very abyss of despair the prophets hope takes wing and soars aloft. It is not that he sees only the bright features of the prospect. No words can be fiercer or less compromising than the invective in which he denounces the sins of the nation. It would seem as if in his imagery he could not find colours dark enough to blacken the Israel of God. The Israel of God? Why, thy father was an Amorite and thy mother a Hittite–vile, polluted, God-forsaken heathens both; and after the foul deeds of thy parentage thou thyself hast done. The Israel of God? Why, thine elder sister is Samaria–Samaria, the profane and the profligate; and thy younger sister is Sodom–Sodom, whose very name is a byword for all that is most loathsome, most abominable in human wickedness, and whose vengeance–the sulphurous fire from heaven–flare out as a beacon of warning against sin and impurity to all time. And thou art far worse than thy sisters. Restore thee from thy captivity? Ay, then when Samaria is restored, then when Sodom is restored–then, and not till then–unless thou repent. And yet, as the prophets eye ranges beyond the immediate present, what does he see? The Spirit carries him into the wilderness and sets him down there. It is the scene apparently of some murderous conflict between the wild tribes of the desert or of some catastrophe which has befallen a caravan of travellers. The ground is strewn with the bones of the dead–fleshless, sinewless, picked clean by the vultures and bleached by long exposure, tossed here and there by the rage of the elements or the reckless hand of man. Is it possible that these bones, so bare and so dry, shall unite, shall be clothed, shall live and move again? God only can say. A moment more, and the answer is given. There is a rustling, a clatter, a uniting of joint and socket, a meeting of vertebra and vertebra. Sinews stretch from bone to bone flesh and skin spread over them. At Gods bidding breath is breathed into them. They start up on their feet an exceeding great army. But the range of vision is not bounded here. Beyond the wilderness lies the pleasant land. Beyond the valley of dry bones is the hill of Sion, the city of the living God. After the revival of Israel comes the spread of the truth, the expansion of the Church. The exceeding great army is there; but the battle is still unfought, the victory has still to be won. So the prophet is carried again by the Spirit, and set down in the holy city. He is there once again within the sacred precincts, where of old he had ministered as a priest. The scene is the same, and yet not the same. The hill of the temple has grown into a very high mountain. Everything is on a grander scale–a larger sanctuary, a more faithful priesthood, richer and more abundant offerings. His eye is arrested by the little spring of pure water which issued from the temple rock and found its way in a trickling stream to the valley beneath–fit symbol of the Church of God. As he watches, it rises and swells, ankle-deep, knee-deep, overhead. Silently, steadily, it expands and gathers volume, pouring down the main valley and filling all the lateral gorges, advancing onward and onward, till it washes the bases of the far-off hills of Moab and sweetens the salt, waters of the very Sea of Death–teeming with life, watering towns and fertilising deserts, throughout its beneficent course–a stream so puny and obscure at its sources, so broad and full and bountiful in its issues–this mighty river of God. Indeed it was no earthly pile of masonry, no building made by hands–this magnified temple, which rose before the prophets eyes. So it has always been. Gods chief revelations have ever flashed out in seasons of trial and perplexity. As in Ezekiels vision, there has been first the whirlwind–then the cloud–then the flame, the light, the glory, glowing with ever-increasing brightness from the very heart and blackness of the cloud. There is first the wild, impetuous force, unseen yet irresistible, rooting up old institutions, scattering old ideas, perplexing, deafening, blinding; sweeping all things human and Divine into its eddies. Then the dark cloud of despair–the despair of materialism or the despair of agnosticism–settles down, with its numbing chill. Then at length emerges the vision of the Throne, the Chariot of God, blinding the eyes with its dazzling splendour; and after this the vision of the dry and bleaching hones starting up into new life; and after this the vision of a larger sanctuary and a purer worship. It was so at the epoch of the Babylonian captivity; it was so at the downfall of the Roman empire; it was so at, the outbreak of the Reformation. And shall it not be so once again? We are warned by the experience of the past not to overrate either the perplexities or the hopes of the present. Nearness of view unduly magnifies the proportions of events. Yet it is surely no exaggeration to say that the Church of our day is passing through one of those momentous crises which only occur at intervals of two or three centuries. It is the concurrence of so many and various disturbing elements which forms the characteristic feature of our age. Here is the vast accumulation of scientific facts, the rapid progress of scientific ideas; there is the enlarged knowledge of ancient and widespread religions arising from the increased facilities of travel. Here is the sharpening of the critical faculty to a keenness of edge unstrained in any previous age; there is the accumulation of new materials for its exercise from divers sources, the recovery of many a lost chapter in the history of the human race, whether from ancient manuscripts, or from the deciphered hieroglyphs of Egypt and the disentombed palaces of Assyria, or even from the reliques of a more remote past, the flint implements and the bone caverns of prehistoric man. These are some of the intellectual factors with which the Church in our age has to reckon. And the social and political forces are not less disturbing. What, then, must be our attitude as members of Christs Church at such a season? The experience of the past will inspire hope for the future. In quietness and confidence, shall be your strength. We shall not rush hastily to cut the political knot, because it will take us some time and much patience to untie it. We shall keep our eyes and our minds open to each fresh accession of knowledge, stubbornly rejecting no truth when it is attested, rashly accepting no inference because it is novel and attractive. As disciples of the Word incarnate, the same eternal Word who is, and has been from the beginning, in science as in history, in nature as in revelation, we shall rest assured that He has much yet to teach us; that a larger display of His manifold operations, however confusing now, must in the end carry with it a clearer knowledge of Himself; that for the Church of the future a far more glorious destiny is in store than ever attended the Church of the past. There is the whirlwind now, sweeping down from the rude tempestuous north; there is the gathering cloud now, dark and boding; but even now the keen eye of the faithful watcher detects the first rift in the gloom, the earliest darting ray which shall broaden and intensify, till it reveals the chariot throne of the Eternal Word framed in transcendent light.
1. The idea of mobility is the foremost which the image involves. The vision of Ezekiel provokes a comparison with the vision of Isaiah. Isaiah saw the Lord enthroned on high, there above the mercy seat, there between the cherubim, there in the same local sanctuary, where for centuries He had received the adoration of an elect and special people. The awe of the vision is enhanced by its localisation. But with Ezekiel this is changed. The vision is in a heathen land. The throne is a chariot now. It is placed on wheels arranged transversely, so that it can move easily to all the four quarters of the heavens. Its motion is direct, immediate, rapid, darting like the lightning flash, whithersoever it is sped. Not, indeed, that the element of fixity is lost. Though a chariot, it remains still a throne. It is supported by the four living creatures whose wings as they beat fill the air with their whirring, but whose feet are planted straight and firm. They have four faces looking four ways, but these are immovable. They turned not when they went. However we may interpret them, they are the firm supports of the chariot, moving rapidly, yet never turning, unchangeable in themselves, yet capable of infinite adaptation in their processes.
2. The counterpart to the mobility in the larger dispensation of the future thus implied in the vision is its spirituality. It is mobile just because it is spiritual. The letter is fixed; the form is rigid and motionless as death. The spirit only is instinct with life. Whither the spirit was to go they went. Everywhere the presence of the Spirit is emphasised; and this emphatic reiteration is the more remarkable because it is found in the midst of accurate dates, precise measurements, topographical descriptions, minute external details of all kinds.
3. But lastly, if spirituality characterises the motive power, if mobility is the leading feature in the intermediate energies and processes, universality is the final result. The chariot of God moves freely to all the four quarters of the heavens. The prophet sees it first in the plains of Babylonia. He is then carried in his vision to the Temple at Jerusalem. There he beholds the glory filling the holy place, the throne of God supported on the cherubim: and there, too–an unwonted surprise–are the four faces, the wings, the hands, the wheels full of eyes, just the same forms and the same motions which he had seen in the land of his exile. Ay, he understands it now. The living creatures of Babylonia are none other than the sacred cherubim of the sanctuary. Three times, as if he would assure himself or convince others by reiteration, he repeats the words, The same which I saw by the river Chebar. So, then, God works with power, God is enthroned in glory, not less in that far-off heathen land than in His own cherished sanctuary among His own elect people. The vision of Ezekiel is not a dead or dying story, which has served its turn and now may pass out of mind. It lives still as the very charter of the Church of the future. If in this nineteenth century we Englishmen would do any work for Christs Church, which shall be real, shall be solid, shall be lasting, we must follow in the lines here marked out for us. Mobility, spirituality, universality, these three ideas must inspire our efforts. Other methods may seem more efficacious for the moment, but this only will resist the stress of time. Not to cling obstinately to the decayed anachronisms of the past, not to linger wistfully over the death-stricken forms of the past, not to narrow our intellectual horizon, not to stunt our moral sympathies; but to adapt and to enlarge, to absorb new truths, to gather new ideas, to develop new institutions, to follow always the teaching of the Spirit–the Spirit, which will not be bound and imprisoned–the Spirit, which is like the breath of wind, and whose very name speaks of elasticity and expansion, passing through every crevice, filling every interstice, conforming itself to every modification of size and shape; this is our duty as Christians, as Churchmen, as Anglicans, remembering meanwhile that there is one fixed centre from which all our thoughts must radiate, and to which all our hopes must converge–Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. (Bishop Lightfoot.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 4. A whirlwind came out of the north] Nebuchadnezzar, whose land, Babylonia, lay north of Judea. Chaldea is thus frequently denominated by Jeremiah.
A great cloud, and a fire infolding itself] A mass of fire concentrated in a vast cloud, that the flames might be more distinctly observable, the fire never escaping from the cloud, but issuing, and then returning in upon itself. It was in a state of powerful agitation; but always involving itself, or returning back to the centre whence it appeared to issue.
A brightness was about it] A fine tinge of light surrounded the cloud, in order to make its limits the more discernible; beyond which verge the turmoiling fire did not proceed.
The colour of amber] This was in the centre of the cloud; and this amber-coloured substance was the centre of the labouring flame. The word , which we translate amber, was used to signify a compound metal, very bright, made of gold and brass.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I looked; I did very diligently survey the things that were represented to me in the vision. Behold: this calls us to consider what he had seen and represented to us.
A whirlwind; a mighty, stormy, and turbulent wind, a wind that bears away or bears down all before it; this denotes the indignation and judgments of God, a quick, impetuous, and irresistible vengeance. Most grievous judgments, represented as here, so 1Ki 19:11; Job 38:1; Psa 104:4.
Came; came as if it knew its way, and, notwithstanding its impetuousness and irregularities, yet held its direct course.
Out of the north; from Babylon, which in Scripture geography is laid northward from Judea, and the prophet, though now in Babylon, does speak of the Jews as if they were in Jerusalem; against which this cloud, on which an angry God did ride, hastening vengeance on them, which they should be as little able to divert or withstand as to stop the course of the clouds, or their breaking upon us: it was the army of the Chaldeans, made up of multitudes of people, (as the cloud is made by the concourse of multitudes of exhalations and vapours,) Jer 4:13.
A fire infolding itself; burning in a dreadful manner, very fierce, fed by fuel within itself, breaking out and flashing with terror, though it had seemed to rebate, and encircling all things near it, and threatening to devour all. Such was the anger of God against this sinful nation.
And a brightness was about it; though thus terrible, yet round about it was not smoke and darkness, but a clear light or splendour. The majesty, holiness, justice of God appeared to the prophet, and might be seen by the suffering Jews, to humble them, that they might seek him.
Out of the midst thereof; either of the whirlwind or cloud, or the fire rather, as in the end of the verse.
As the colour; Heb. as the eye, the aspect, or appearance.
Amber; the Hebrew word is variously interpreted, and it is lost labour to search the rabbins here. Amber is either natural, which if in the fire loseth its brightness; or artificial, made of fine gold and fine brass mixed, which will brighten in the fire, and of equal value with gold, (as the DD. Bothart observes,) of which Josephus saith Solomon did make the sea of brass, and the sacred vessels; somewhat like the Corinthian brass, known now only by its name, exceeding splendid, and very hard, the one speaking the glorious majesty to be reverenced, the other speaking the invincible power of God to be feared; both advising this people and us to repent and amend, and return and meet him.
Out of the midst of the fire; which the prophet saw, and in which the Jews were to be melted or consumed.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. whirlwindemblematic ofGod’s judgments (Jer 23:19;Jer 25:32).
out of the norththatis, from Chaldea, whose hostile forces would invade Judea from anortherly direction. The prophet conceives himself in thetemple.
fire infolding itselflayinghold on whatever surrounds it, drawing it to itself, and devouringit. Literally, “catching itself,” that is, kindling itself[FAIRBAIRN]. The sameHebrew occurs in Ex 9:24,as to the “fire mingled with the hail.”
brightness . . . aboutitthat is, about the “cloud.”
out of the midst thereofthatis, out of the midst of the “fire.”
colour of amberrather,”the glancing brightness (literally, ‘the eye’, and so theglancing appearance) of polished brass. The Hebrew, chasmal,is from two roots, “smooth” and “brass” (compareEze 1:7; Rev 1:15)[GESENIUS]. The Septuagintand Vulgate translate it, “electrum“; abrilliant metal compounded of gold and silver.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I looked,…. Being under the influence of the Spirit and power of God:
and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north; which some understand of Nebuchadnezzar and his army coming from Babylon, which lay north of Judea: see Jer 1:14; but it seems to me to be, with what follows, only an apparatus to the following vision: and is designed to awaken the mind of the prophet, and to fix his attention to what should proceed from hence, and be seen by him; just as the Lord speared in and answered Job out of, the whirlwind, Job 38:1;
a great cloud; as is usual when there is much thunder and lightning; though some understand this also of Nebuchadnezzar’s army, which came in great human, swiftly and powerfully, as a cloud:
and a fire infolding itself: in the cloud; rolling within it, when it burst out in thunder and lightning. The Targum renders it, “fire inflamed”, the same phrase is used of the storm of thunder, lightning, and hail, in Ex 9:24. Some understand this of the wrath of the Babylonian monarch; or of the wrath of God by him; or of the sins of men, the cause thereof:
and a brightness [was] about it; that is, the cloud. This brightness was an emblem of the glory of the divine Being; who was now present, an enlightened the mind of the prophet to see the following things, and which all proceeded from him:
and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber out of the midst of the fire; that is, out of the midst of the fire, and out of the midst of the brightness about it, there was something which was as “the colour of amber”; or, “like the chasmal” f; which, the Jews g say, is the name of an angel. It is asked h, what is “chasmal?” R. Judah says, , “fiery animals speaking”: who, when God speaks, are silent; and when he does not speak, they speak; but Christ is meant; for the appearance of the man upon the throne is said to be as the colour of “chasmal”, Eze 1:27. The word, read the contrary way, is the Messiah, or the anointed, or to be anointed. Jarchi thinks it is the name of a colour, nearest to the colour of fire, Junius and Tremellius render it, “a most lively colour”; and perhaps may mean the colour of a burning coal; and Buxtorf translates it, “a coal exceedingly fired”; a clear, burning, red-hot coal; which may denote the pure light of Christ, who is the brightness of his Father’s glory; his flaming love for his people; his burning zeal for the glory of God, and the good of his church; and his fiery indignation against his enemies. We render the word amber, as do others; by which must be meant, not that which is the juice of certain trees, which is hardened by the air, and is of a yellowish colour; nor that liquid substance which comes from sea shores and rocks, and, being hardened in the same way, is of the colour of wax; but a sort of mixed metal, compounded of gold and silver; the fifth part of it is silver, as Pliny i says, and four parts gold; though Bochart is of opinion that the “qurichalcum”, a metal made of gold and brass, is meant; which is the most fine brass; to which the feet of Christ are compared in Re 1:15; and so this “chasmal” may denote the two natures in Christ; the preciousness of his person; his brightness and glory; and his great strength and power. R. Abendana k conjectures, that the colour of “chasmal” means the colour of some precious stone, as the colour of “tarshish”, or “beryl”, Eze 1:16; and so he that sat upon the throne, in Re 4:3; was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone.
f “tanquam species hasmal, [vel] chasmal”, Calvin, Tigerius version, Starckius; “angeli”, Munster; “flammae crepitantis”, Montanus; “prunarum ardentissimarum”, Polanus; “purissimi aeris”, Piscator; , Sept. “electri”, V. L. Pagninus. g Baal Aruch, Philip. Aquinas. Vid. Jarchi & Kimchi ib loc. h T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 13. 1. 2. i Nat. Hist. l. 33. c. 4. k Not. in Miclol Yophi in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Description of the theophany seen by the spirit of the prophet. – Eze 1:4. And I saw, and, lo, a tempestuous wind came from the north, a great cloud, and a fire rolled together like a ball, and the brightness of light round about it, and out of its midst, as the appearance of glowing metal from the midst of the fire. – The description begins with a general outline of the phenomenon, as the same presented itself to the spiritual eye of the prophet on its approach from the north. A tempestuous wind brings hither from the north a great cloud, the centre of which appears as a lump of fire, which throws around the cloud the brightness of light, and presents in its midst the appearance of glowing metal. The coming of the phenomenon from the north is, as a matter of course, not connected with the Babylonian representation of the mountain of the gods situated in the extreme north, Isa 14:13. According to the invariable usage of speech followed by the prophets, especially by Jeremiah (cf. e.g., Eze 1:14; Eze 4:6; Eze 6:1, etc.), the north is the quarter from which the enemies who were to execute judgment upon Jerusalem and Judah break in. According to this usage, the coming of this divine appearance from the north signifies that it is from the north that God will bring to pass the judgment upon Judah. , “fire rolled together like a ball,” is an expression borrowed from Exo 9:10. refers to , and to , as we see from the words in apposition, . The fire, which formed the centre of the cloud, had the appearance of . The meaning of this word, which occurs again in Eze 1:27 and Eze 8:2, is disputed. The Septuagint and Vulgate translate it by , electrum , i.e., a metal having a bright lustre, and consisting of a mixture of gold and silver. Cf. Strabo, III. 146; Plin. Hist. Nat. xxxiii. 4. To the explanation of Bochart, that it is a compound of , “brass,” and the Talmudic word or , “ aurum rude ,” and signifies “rough gold ore,” is opposed the fact that the reading in the Talmud is not certain, but purports to be (cf. Gesen. Thesaur. p. 535, and Buxtorf, Lexic. Talmud, p. 1214), as well as the circumstance that raw gold ore has not a lustre which could shine forth out of the fire. Still less probability has the supposition that it is a compound of l#$x , in Syriac “ conflavit, fabricavit ,” and , “fricuit,” on which Hvernick and Maurer base the meaning of “a piece of metal wrought in the fire.” The word appears simply to be formed from , probably “to glow,” with appended, as from m orf , and to denote “glowing ore.” This meaning is appropriate both in v. 27, where is explained by , as well as in Eze 8:2, where , “brilliancy,” stands as parallel to it. , however, is different from in Eze 1:7 and in Dan 10:6, for refers in all the three places to the person of Him who is enthroned above the cherubim; while in Eze 1:7 is spoken of the feet of the cherubim, and in Dan 10:6 of the arms and feet of the personage who there manifests Himself. In verse fifth the appearance is described more minutely. There first present themselves to the eye of the seer four beings, whom he describes according to their figure and style.
Eze 1:5-14 The four cherubim. – Eze 1:5. And out of its midst there prominently appeared a figure, consisting of four creatures, and this was their appearance: they had the figure of a man. Eze 1:6 . And each had four faces, and each of them had four wings. Eze 1:7 . And their feet were upright-standing feet; and the soles of their feet like the soles of a calf, and sparkling like the appearance of shining brass. Eze 1:8 . And the hands of a man were under their wings on their four sides; and all four had faces and wings. Eze 1:9 . Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not as they went; they went each one in the direction of his face. Eze 1:10 . And the form of their faces was that of a man; and on the right all four had a lion’s face; and on the left all four had the face of an ox; and all four had an eagle’s face. Eze 1:11 . And their faces and their wings were divided above, two of each uniting with one another, and two covering their bodies. Eze 1:12 . And they went each in the direction of his face; whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went; they turned not as they went. Eze 1:13 . And the likeness of the creatures resembled burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches: it (the fire) went hither and thither amongst the beings; and the fire was brilliant, and from the fire came forth lightning. Eze 1:14 . And the beings ran hither and thither in a zig-zag manner.
From out of the fiery centre of the cloud there shows itself the form ( tw%md@; , properly “resemblance,” “picture”) of four , animantia, “living creatures;” , Rev 4:6; not , “wild beasts,” as Luther has incorrectly rendered it, after the animalia of the Vulgate. These four creatures had , “the figure of a man.” Agreeably to this notice, placed at the head of the description, these creatures are to be conceived as presenting the appearance of a human body in all points not otherwise specified in the following narrative. Each of them had four faces and four wings ( without the article stands as a distributive, and are “pinions,” as in Isa 6:2, not “pairs of wings”). Their feet were , “a straight foot;” the singular stands generically, stating only the nature of the feet, without reference to their number. We have accordingly to assume in each of the four creatures two legs, as in a man. .nam a , “straight,” i.e., standing upright, not bent, as when sitting or kneeling. is the whole leg, including the knee and thigh, and , “sole of the foot,” or the under part of the leg, with which we tread on the ground. This part, not the whole leg, resembled the calf’s foot, which is firmly planted on the ground. The legs sparkled like the appearance of . The subject of is not “the , which are understood to be intended under the in verse fifth” (Hitzig), for this subject is too far distant, but , which is here construed as masculine, as in Jer 13:16. In this sense are these words apprehended in Rev 1:15, and there translated by . On this word see Hengstenberg and Dsterdieck on Rev 1:15. ‘ probably signifies “light,” i.e., “bright, shining brass,” as the old translators have rendered it. The Septuagint has ; the Vulgate, aes candens ; and the Chaldee paraphrase, aes flammans . The signification “smoothed, polished brass” (Bochart), rests upon uncertain combinations; cf. Gesen. Thes. p. 1217, and is appropriate neither here nor in Dan 10:6, where these words precede, “His face had the appearance of lightning, and his eyes were as a flame of fire.” Under the four wings were four hands on the four sides of each cherub, formed like the hands of a man. The wings accordingly rested upon the shoulders, from which the hands came forth. The Chetib may certainly be defended if with Kimchi and others we punctuate , and take the suffix distributively and elliptically, “his (i.e., each of the four creatures) hands were (the hands of) a man;” cf. for such an ellipsis as this, passages like that in Psa 18:34, , “my feet as the (feet) of hinds;” Job 35:2, , “before the righteousness of God.” It is extremely probable, however, that is only the error of an old copyist for , and that the Keri is the correct reading, as the taking of elliptically is not in keeping with the broad style of Ezekiel, which in its verbosity verges on tautology. The second half of Eze 1:8 is neither, with Hvernick, to be referred to the following ninth verse, where the faces are no more spoken of, nor, with Hitzig, to be arbitrarily mutilated; but is to be taken as it stands, comprising all that has hitherto been said regarding the faces and wings, in order to append thereto in Eze 1:9. the description of the use and nature of these members. The definite statement, that “the wings were joined one to another,” is in Eze 1:11 limited to the two upper wings, according to which we have so to conceive the matter, that the top or the upper right wing of each cherub came in contact with the top of the left wing of the neighbouring cherub. This junction presented to the eye of the seer the unity and coherence of all the four creatures as a complete whole – a , and implied, as a consequence, the harmonious action in common of the four creatures. They did not turn as they went along, but proceeded each in the direction of his face. , “over against his face.” The meaning is thus rightly given by Kliefoth: “As they had four faces, they needed not to turn as they went, but went on as (i.e., in the direction in which) they were going, always after the face.”
In the closer description of the faces in Eze 1:10, the face of the man is first mentioned as that which was turned towards the seer, that of the lion to the right side, the ox to the left, and that of the eagle (behind). In naming these three, it is remarked that all the four creatures had these faces: in naming the man’s face, this remark is omitted, because the word (referring to all the four) immediately precedes. In Eze 1:11, it is next remarked of the faces and wings, that they were divided above ( , “from above,” “upward”); then the direction of the wings is more precisely stated. The word is neither to be referred to the preceding, “and it was their faces,” nor, with Hitzig, to be expunged as a gloss; but is quite in order as a statement that not only the wings but also the faces were divided above, consequently were not like Janus’ faces upon one head, but the four faces were planted upon four heads and necks. In the description that follows, is not quite distinct, and #$y)i is manifestly to be taken as an abbreviation of in Eze 1:9: on each were two wings joining one another, i.e., touching with their tops the tips of the wings of the cherub beside them, in accordance with which we have to conceive the wings as expanded. Two were covering their bodies, i.e., each cherub covered his body with the pair of wings that folded downwards; not, as Kliefoth supposes, that the lower wings of the one cherub covered the body of the other cherub beside him, which also is not the meaning in Eze 1:23; see note on that verse. In Eze 1:12, what is to be said about their movements is brought to a conclusion, while both statements are repeated in Eze 1:9, and completed by the addition of the principium movens . In whatever direction the “was to go, in that direction they went;” i.e., not according to the action of their own will, but wherever the impelled them. , however, signifies not “impulse,” nor, in this place, even “the wind,” as the vehicle of the power of the spiritual life palpable to the senses, which produced and guided their movements, (Kliefoth), but spirit. For, according to Eze 1:20, the movement of the wheels, which was in harmony with the movements of the cherubim, was not caused by the wind, but proceeded from the , i.e., from the spirit dwelling in the creature. On the contrary, there is not in the whole description, with the exception of the general statement that a tempestuous wind drove from the north the great cloud in which the theophany was enwrapped, any allusion to a means of motion palpable to the senses. In the 13th and 14th verses is described the entire impression produced by the movement of the whole appearance. precedes, and is taken absolutely “as regards the form of the creatures,” and corresponds to the in Eze 1:5, with which the description of the individual figures which appeared in the brightness of the fire was introduced. Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches. refers to as the principal conception. Fire, like the fire of burning coals and torches, went, moved hither and thither amongst the four creatures. This fire presented a bright appearance, and out of it came forth lightnings. The creatures, moreover, were in constant motion. , from , an Aramaising form for the Hebrew , to run. The infin. absol. stands instead of the finite verb. The conjecture of , after Gen 8:7 (Hitzig), is inappropriate, because here we have not to think of “coming out,” and no reason exists for the striking out of the words, as Hitzig proposes. The continued motion of the creatures is not in contradiction with their perpetually moving on straight before them. “They went hither and thither, and yet always in the direction of their countenances; because they had a countenance looking in the direction of every side” (Kliefoth). signifies not “lightning” (= ), but comes from ; in Syriac, “to be split,” and denotes “the splitting,” i.e., the zigzag course of the lightning (Kliefoth).
Eze 1:15-21 The four wheels beside the cherubim. – Eze 1:15. And I saw the creatures, and, lo, there was a wheel upon the earth beside the creatures, towards their four fronts. Eze 1:16 . The appearance of the wheels and their work was like the appearance of the chrysolite; and all four had one kind of figure: and their appearance and their work was as if one wheel were within the other. Eze 1:17 . Towards their four sides they went when they moved: they turned not as they went. Eze 1:18 . And their felloes, they were high and terrible; and their felloes were full of eyes round about in all the four. Eze 1:19 . And when the creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them; and when the creatures raised themselves up from the earth, the wheels also raised themselves. Eze 1:20 . Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went in the direction in which the spirit was to go; and the wheels raised themselves beside them: for the spirit of the creatures was in the wheels. Eze 1:21 . When the former moved, the latter moved also; when the former stood, the latter stood; and when the former raised themselves from the ground, the wheels raised themselves beside them: for the spirit of the creatures was in the wheels. – The words, “and I saw the creatures,” prepare the way for the transition to the new object which presented itself in these creatures to the eye of the seer. By the side of these creatures upon the ground he sees a wheel, and that at the four fronts, or front faces of the creatures. The singular suffix in can neither be referred, with Rosenmller, to the chariot, which is not mentioned at all, nor, with Hitzig, to the preposition , nor, with Hvernick, Maurer, and Kliefoth, to , and so be understood as if every wheel looked towards four sides, because a second wheel was inserted in it at right angles. This meaning is not to be found in the words. The suffix refers ad sensum to (Ewald), or, to express it more correctly, to the figure of the cherubim with its four faces turned to the front, conceived as a unity – as one creature ( , Eze 1:22). Accordingly, we have so to represent the matter, that by the side of the four cherubim, namely, beside his front face, a wheel was to be seen upon the earth. Ezekiel then saw four wheels, one on each front of a cherub, and therefore immediately speaks in Eze 1:16 of wheels (in the plural). In this verse is adspectus , and “work;” i.e., both statements employing the term “construction,” although in the first hemistich only the appearance, in the second only the construction, of the wheels is described. is a chrysolite of the ancients, the topaz of the moderns, – a stone having the lustre of gold. The construction of the wheels was as if one wheel were within a wheel, i.e., as if in the wheel a second were inserted at right angles, so that without being turned it could go towards all the four sides. , in Eze 1:18, stands absolutely. “As regards their felloes,” they possessed height and terribleness-the latter because they were full of eyes all round. Hitzig arbitrarily understands of the upper sides; and , after the Arabic, of the under side, or that which lies towards the back. The movement of the wheels completely followed the movement of the creatures (Eze 1:19-21), because the spirit of the creature was in the wheels. , in Eze 1:20 and Eze 1:21, is not the “principle of life” (Hvernick), but the cherubic creatures conceived as a unity, as in Eze 1:22, where the meaning is undoubted. The sense is: the wheels were, in their motion and rest, completely bound by the movements and rest of the creatures, because the spirit which ruled in them was also in the wheels, and regulated their going, standing, and rising upwards. By the the wheels are bound in one with the cherub-figures, but not by means of a chariot, to or upon which the cherubim were attached.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Vision of the Four Living Creatures. | B. C. 595. |
4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire. 5 Also out of the midst thereof came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. 6 And every one had four faces, and every one had four wings. 7 And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot: and they sparkled like the colour of burnished brass. 8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings. 9 Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. 10 As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle. 11 Thus were their faces: and their wings were stretched upward; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. 12 And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to go, they went; and they turned not when they went. 13 As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning. 14 And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.
The visions of God which Ezekiel here saw were very glorious, and had more particulars than those which other prophets saw. It is the scope and intention of these vision, 1. To possess the prophet’s mind with very great, and high, and honourable thoughts of that God by whom he was commissioned and for whom he was employed. It is the likeness of the glory of the Lord that he sees (v. 28), and hence he may infer that it is his honour to serve him, for he is one whom angels serve. He may serve him with safety, for he has power sufficient to bear him out in his work. It is at his peril to draw back from his service, for he has power to pursue him, as he did Jonah. So great a God as this must be served with reverence and godly fear; and with assurance may Ezekiel foretel what this God will do, for he is able to make his words good. 2. To strike a terror upon the sinners who remained in Zion, and those who had already come to Babylon, who were secure, and bade defiance to the threatenings of Jerusalem’s ruin, as we have found in Jeremiah’s prophecy, and shall find in this, many did. “Let those who said, We shall have peace though we go on, know that our God is a consuming fire, whom they cannot stand before.” That this vision had a reference to the destruction of Jerusalem seems plain from ch. xliii. 3, where he says that it was the vision which he saw when he came to destroy the city, that is, to prophesy the destruction of it. 3. To speak comfort to those that feared God, and trembled at his word, and humbled themselves under his mighty hand. “Let them know that, though they are captives in Babylon, yet they have God nigh unto them; though they have not the place of the sanctuary to be their glorious high throne, they have the God of the sanctuary.” Dr. Lightfoot observes, “Now that the church is to be planted for a long time in another country, the Lord shows a glory in the midst of them, as he had done at their first constituting into a church in the wilderness; and out of a cloud and fire, as he had done there, he showed himself; and from between living creatures, as from between the cherubim, he gives his oracles.” This put an honour upon them, by which they might value themselves when the Chaldeans insulted over them, and this might encourage their hopes of deliverance in due time.
Now, to answer these ends, we have in these verses the first part of the vision, which represents God as attended and served by an innumerable company of angels, who are all his messengers, his ministers, doing his commandments and hearkening to the voice of his word. This denotes his grandeur, as it magnifies an earthly prince to have a splendid retinue and numerous armies at his command, which engages his allies to trust him and his enemies to fear him.
I. The introduction to this vision of the angels is very magnificent and awakening, v. 4. The prophet, observing the heavens to open, looked, looked up (as it was time), to see what discoveries God would make to him. Note, When the heavens are opened it concerns us to have our eyes open. To clear the way, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, which would drive away the interposing mists of this lower region. Fair weather comes out of the north, and thence the wind comes that drives away rain. God can by a whirlwind clear the sky and air, and produce that serenity of mind which is necessary to our communion with Heaven. Yet this whirlwind was attended with a great cloud. When we think that the clouds which arise from this earth are dispelled and we can see beyond them, yet still there is a cloud which heavenly things are wrapped in, a cloud from above, so that we cannot order our speech concerning them by reason of darkness. Christ here descended, as he ascended, in a cloud. Some by this whirlwind and cloud understand the Chaldean army coming out of the north against the land of Judah, bearing down all before them as a tempest; and so it agrees with that which was signified by one of the first of Jeremiah’s visions (Jer. i. 14, Out of the north an evil shall break forth); but I take it here as an introduction rather to the vision than to the sermons. This whirlwind came to Ezekiel (as that to Elijah, 1 Kings xix. 11), to prepare the way of the Lord, and to demand attention. He that has eyes, that has ears, let him see, let him hear.
II. The vision itself. A great cloud was the vehicle of this vision, in which it was conveyed to the prophet; for God’s pavilion in which he rests, his chariot in which he rides, is darkness and thick clouds,Psa 18:11; Psa 104:3. Thus he holds back the face of his throne, lest its dazzling light and lustre should overpower us, by spreading a cloud upon it. Now,
1. The cloud is accompanied with a fire, as upon Mount Sinai, where God resided in a thick cloud; but the sight of his glory was like a devouring fire (Exo 24:16; Exo 24:17), and his first appearance to Moses was in a flame of fire in the bush; for our God is a consuming fire. This was a fire enfolding itself, a globe, or orb, or wheel of fire. God being his own cause, his own rule, and his own end, if he be as a fire, he is as a fire enfolding itself, or (as some read it) kindled by itself. The fire of God’s glory shines forth, but it quickly enfolds itself; for he lets us know but part of his ways; the fire of God’s wrath breaks forth, but it also quickly enfolds itself, for the divine patience suffers not all his wrath to be stirred up. If it were not a fire thus enfolding itself, O Lord! who shall stand?
2. The fire is surrounded with a glory: A brightness was about it, in which it enfolded itself, yet it made some discovery of itself. Though we cannot see into the fire, cannot by searching find out God to perfection, yet we see the brightness that is round about it, the reflection of this fire from the thick cloud. Moses might see God’s back parts, but not his face. We have some light concerning the nature of God, from the brightness which encompasses it, though we have not an insight into it, by reason of the cloud spread upon it. Nothing is more easy than to determine that God is, nothing more difficult than to describe what he is. When God displays his wrath as fire, yet there is a brightness about it; for his holiness and justice appear very illustrious in the punishment of sin and sinners: even about the devouring fire there is a brightness, which glorified saints will for ever admire.
3. Out of this fire there shines the colour of amber. We are not told who or what it was that had this colour of amber, and therefore I take it to be the whole frame of the following vision, which came into Ezekiel’s view out of the midst of the fire and brightness; and the first thing he took notice of before he viewed the particulars was that it was of the colour of amber, or the eye of amber; that is, it looked as amber does to the eye, of a bright flaming fiery colour, the colour of a burning coal; so some think it should be read. The living creatures which he saw coming out of the midst of the fire were seraphim—burners; for he maketh his angels spirits, his ministers a flaming fire.
4. That which comes out of the fire, of a fiery amber colour, when it comes to be distinctly viewed, is the likeness of four living creatures; not the living creatures themselves (angels are spirits, and cannot be seen), but the likeness of them, such a hieroglyphic, or representation, as God saw fit to make use of for the leading of the prophet, and us with him, into some acquaintance with the world of angels (a matter purely of divine revelation), so far as is requisite to possess us with an awful sense of the greatness of that God who has angels for his attendants, and the goodness of that God who has appointed them to be attendants on his people. The likeness of these living creatures came out of the midst of the fire; for angels derive their being and power from God; they are in themselves, and to us, what he is pleased to make them; their glory is a ray of his. The prophet himself explains this vision (ch. x. 20): I knew that the living creatures were the cherubim, which is one of the names by which the angels are known in scripture. To Daniel was made known their number, ten thousand times ten thousand, Dan. vii. 10. But, though they are many, yet they are one, and that is made known to Ezekiel here; they are one in nature and operation, as an army, consisting of thousands, is yet called a body of men. We have here an account of,
(1.) Their nature. They are living creatures; they are the creatures of God, the work of his hands; their being is derived; they have not life in and of themselves, but receive it from him who is the fountain of life. As much as the living creatures of this lower world excel the vegetables that are the ornaments of earth, so much do the angels, the living creatures of the upper world, excel the sun, moon, and stars, the ornaments of the heavens. The sun (say some) is a flame of fire enfolding itself, but it is not a living creature, as angels, those flames of fire, are. Angels are living creatures, living beings, emphatically so. Men on earth are dying creatures, dying daily (in the midst of life we are in death), but angels in heaven are living creatures; they live indeed, live to good purpose; and, when saints come to be equal unto the angels, they shall not die any more, Luke xx. 36.
(2.) Their number. They are four; so they appear here, though they are innumerable; not as if these were four particular angels set up above the rest, as some have fondly imagined, Michael and Gabriel, Raphael and Uriel, but for the sake of the four faces they put on, and to intimate their being sent forth towards the four winds of heaven, Matt. xxiv. 31. Zechariah saw them as four chariots going forth east, west, north, and south, Zech. vi. 1. God has messengers to send every way; for his kingdom is universal, and reaches to all parts of the world.
(3.) Their qualifications, by which they are fitted for the service of their Maker and Master. These are set forth figuratively and by similitude, as is proper in visions, which are parables to the eye. Their description here is such, and so expressed, that I think it is not possible by it to form an exact idea of them in our fancies, or with the pencil, for that would be a temptation to worship them; but the several instances of their fitness for the work they are employed in are intended in the several parts of this description. Note, It is the greatest honour of God’s creatures to be in a capacity of answering the end of their creation; and the more ready we are to every good work the nearer we approach to the dignity of angels. These living creatures are described here, [1.] By their general appearance: They had the likeness of a man; they appeared, for the main, in a human shape, First, To signify that these living creatures are reasonable creatures, intelligent beings, who have the spirit of a man which is the candle of the Lord. Secondly, To put an honour upon the nature of man, who is made lower, yet but a little lower, than the angels, in the very next rank of beings below them. When the invisible intelligences of the upper world would make themselves visible, it is in the likeness of man. Thirdly, To intimate that their delights are with the sons of men, as their Master’s are (Prov. viii. 31), that they do service to men, and men may have spiritual communion with them by faith, hope, and holy love. Fourthly, The angels of God appear in the likeness of man because in the fulness of time the Son of God was not only to appear in that likeness, but to assume that nature; they therefore show this love to it. [2.] By their faces: Every one had four faces, looking four several ways. In St. John’s vision, which has a near affinity with this, each of the four living creatures has one of these faces here mentioned (Rev. iv. 7); here each of them has all four, to intimate that they have all the same qualifications for service; though, perhaps, among the angels of heaven, as among the angels of the churches, some excel in one gift and others in another, but all for the common service. Let us contemplate their faces till we be in some measure changed into the same image, that we may do the will of God as the angels do it in heaven. They all four had the face of a man (for in that likeness they appeared, v. 5), but, besides that, they had the face of a lion, an ox, and an eagle, each masterly in its kind, the lion among wild beasts, the ox among tame ones, and the eagle among fowls, v. 10. Does God make use of them for the executing of judgments upon his enemies? They are fierce and strong as the lion and the eagle in tearing their prey. Does he make use of them for the good of his people? They are as oxen strong for labour and inclined to serve. And in both they have the understanding of a man. The scattered perfections of the living creatures on earth meet in the angels of heaven. They have the likeness of man; but, because there are some things in which man is excelled even by the inferior creatures, they are therefore compared to some of them. They have the understanding of a man, and such as far exceeds it; they also resemble man in tenderness and humanity. But, First, A lion excels man in strength and boldness, and is much more formidable; therefore the angels, who in this resemble them, put on the face of a lion. Secondly, An ox excels man in diligence, and patience, and painstaking, and an unwearied discharge of the work he has to do; therefore the angels, who are constantly employed in the service of God and the church, put on the face of an ox. Thirdly, An eagle excels man in quickness and piercingness of sight, and in soaring high; and therefore the angels, who seek things above, and see far into divine mysteries, put on the face of a flying eagle. [3.] By their wings: Every one had four wings, v. 6. In the vision Isaiah had of them they appeared with six, now with four; for they appeared above the throne, and had occasion for two to cover their faces with. The angels are fitted with wings to fly swiftly on God’s errands; whatever business God sends them upon they lose no time. Faith and hope are the soul’s wings, upon which it soars upward; pious and devout affections are its wings on which it is carried forward with vigour and alacrity. The prophet observes here, concerning their wings, First, That they were joined one to another, v. 9 and again v. 11. They did not make use of their wings for fighting, as some birds do; there is no contest among the angels. God makes peace, perfect peace, in his high places. But their wings were joined, in token of their perfect unity and unanimity and the universal agreement there is among them. Secondly, That they were stretched upward, extended, and ready for use, not folded up, or flagging. Let an angel receive the least intimation of the divine will, and he has nothing to seek, but is upon the wings immediately; while our poor dull souls are like the ostrich, that with much difficulty lifts up herself on high. Thirdly, That two of their wings were made use of in covering their bodies, the spiritual bodies they assumed. The clothes that cover us are our hindrance in work; angels need no other covering than their own wings, which are their furtherance. They cover their bodies from us, so forbidding us needless enquiries concerning them. Ask not after them, for they are wonderful, Judg. xiii. 18. They cover them before God, so directing us, when we approach to God, to see to it that we be so clothed with Christ’s righteousness that the shame of our nakedness may not appear. [4.] By their feet, including their legs and thighs: They were straight feet (v. 7); they stood straight, and firm, and steady; no burden of service could make their legs to bend under them. The spouse makes this part of the description of her beloved, that his legs were as pillars of marble set upon sockets of fine gold (Cant. v. 15); such are the angels’ legs. The sole of their feet was like that of a calf’s foot, which divides the hoof and is therefore clean: as it were the sole of a round foot (as the Chaldee words it); they were ready for motion any way. Their feet were winged (so the LXX.); they went so swiftly that it was as if they flew. And their very feet sparkled like the colour of burnished brass; not only the faces, but the very feet, of those are beautiful whom God sends on his errands (Isa. lii. 7); every step the angels take is glorious. In the vision John had of Christ it is said, His feet were like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace, Rev. i. 15. [5.] By their hands (v. 8): They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides, an arm and a hand under every wing. They had not only wings for motion, but hands for action. Many are quick who are not active; they hurry about a great deal, but do nothing to purpose, bring nothing to pass; they have wings, but no hands: whereas God’s servants, the angels, not only go when he sends them and come when he calls them, but do what he bids them. They are the hands of a man, which are wonderfully made and fitted for service, which are guided by reason and understanding; for what angles do they do intelligently and with judgment. They have calves’ feet; this denotes the swiftness of their motion (the cedars of Lebanon are said to skip like a calf, Ps. xxix. 6); but they have a man’s hand, which denotes the niceness and exactness of their performances, as the heavens are said to be the work of God’s fingers. Their hands were under their wings, which concealed them, as they did the rest of their bodies. Note, The agency of angels is a secret thing and their work is carried on in an invisible way. In working for God, though we must not, with the sluggard, hide our hand in our bosom, yet we must, with the humble, not let our left hand know what our right hand doeth. We may observe that where these wings were their hands were under their wings; wherever their wings carried them they carried hands along with them, to be still doing something suitable something that the duty of the place requires.
(4.) Their motions. The living creatures are moving. Angels are active beings; it is not their happiness to sit still and do nothing, but to be always well employed; and we must reckon ourselves then best when we are doing good, doing it as the angels do it, or whom it is here observed, [1.] That whatever service they went about they went every one straight forward (Eze 1:9; Eze 1:12), which intimates, First, That they sincerely aimed at the glory of God, and had a single eye to that, in all they did. Their going straight forward supposes that they looked straight forward, and never had any sinister intentions in what they did. And, if thus our eye be single, our whole body will be full of light. The singleness of the eye is the sincerity of the heart. Secondly, That they were intent upon the service they were employed in, and did it with a close application of mind. They went forward with their work; for what their hand found to do they did with all their might and did not loiter in it. Thirdly, That they were unanimous in it: They went straight forward, every one about his own work; they did not thwart or jostle one another, did not stand in one another’s light, in one another’s way. Fourthly, That they perfectly understood their business, and were thoroughly apprised of it, so that they needed not to stand still, to pause of hesitate, but pursue their work with readiness, as those that knew what they had to do and how to do it. Fifthly, They were steady and constant in their work. They did not fluctuate, did not tire, did not vary, but were of a piece with themselves. They moved in a direct line, and so went the nearest way to work in all they did and lost no time. When we go straight we go forward; when we serve God with one heart we rid ground, we rid work. [2.] They turned not when they went,Eze 1:9; Eze 1:12. First, They made no blunders or mistakes, which would give them occasion to turn back to rectify them; their work needed no correction, and therefore needed not to be gone over again. Secondly, They minded no diversions; as they turned not back, so they turned not aside, to trifle with any thing that was foreign to their business. [3.] They went whither the Spirit was to go (v. 12), either, First, Whither their own spirit was disposed to go; thither they went, having no bodies, as we have, to clog or hinder them. It is our infelicity and daily burden that, when the spirit if willing, yet the flesh is weak and cannot keep pace with it, so that the good which we would do we do it not; but angels and glorified saints labour under no such impotency; whatever they incline or intend to do they do it, and never come short of it. Or, rather, Secondly, Whithersoever the Spirit of God would have them go, thither they went. Though they had so much wisdom of their own, yet in all their motions and actions they subjected themselves to the guidance and government of the divine will. Whithersoever the divine Providence was to go they went, to serve its purposes and to execute its orders. The Spirit of God (says Mr. Greenhill) is the great agent that sets angels to work, and it is their honour that they are led, they are easily led, by the Spirit. See how tractable and obsequious these noble creatures are. Whithersoever the Spirit is to go they go immediately, with all possible alacrity. Note, Those that walk after the Spirit do the will of God as the angels do it. [4.] They ran and returned like a flash of lightning, v. 14. This intimates, First, That they made haste; they were quick in their motions, as quick as lightning. Whatever business they went about they despatched it immediately, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Happy they that have no bodies to retard their motion in holy exercises. And happy shall we be when we come to have spiritual bodies for spiritual work. Satan falls like lightning into his own ruin, Luke x. 18. Angels fly like lightning in their Master’s work. The angel Gabriel flew swiftly. Secondly, That they made haste back: They ran and returned; ran to do their work and execute their orders, and then returned to give an account of what they had done and receive new instructions, that they might be always doing. They ran into the lower world, to do what was to be done there; but, when they had done it, they returned like flash of lightning to the upper world again, to the beatific vision of their God, which they could not with any patience be longer from than their service did require. Thus we should be in the affairs of this world as out of our element. Though we run into them, we must not repose in them, but our souls must quickly return like lightning to God their rest and centre.
5. We have an account of the light by which the prophet saw these living creatures, or the looking-glass in which he saw them, v. 13. (1.) He saw them by their own light, for their appearance was like burning coals of fire; they are seraphim-burners, denoting the ardour of their love to God, their fervent zeal in his service, their splendour and brightness, and their terror against God’s enemies. When God employs them to fight his battles they are as coals of fire (Ps. xviii. 12) to devour the adversaries, as lightnings shot out to discomfit them. (2.) He saw them by the light of some lamps, which went up and down among them, the shining whereof was very bright. Satan’s works are works of darkness; he is the ruler of the darkness of this world. But the angels of light are in the light, and, though they conceal their working, they show their work, for it will bear the light. But we see them and their works only by candle-light, but the dim light of lamps that go up and down among them; when the day breaks, and the shadows flee away, we shall see them clearly. Some make the appearance of these burning coals, and of the lightning that issues out of the fire, to signify the wrath of God, and his judgments, that were now to be executed upon Judah and Jerusalem for their sins, in which angels were to be employed; and accordingly we find afterwards coals of fire scattered upon the city to consume it, which were fetched from between the cherubim, ch. x. 2. But by the appearance of the lamps then we may understand the light of comfort which shone forth to the people of God in the darkness of this present trouble. If the ministry of the angels is as a consuming fire to God’s enemies, it is as a rejoicing light to his own children. To the one this fire is bright, it is very reviving and refreshing; to the other, out of the fire comes fresh lightning to destroy them. Note, Good angels are our friends, or enemies, according as God is.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
THE LIKENESS OF GOD’S GLORY, (cont. v. 4-28)
Verses 4-14:
Verse 4 describes three things: 1) a whirlwind, 2) a great cloud, and 3) a fire out of the north. A bright flame of amber color came forth from this whirlwind-like cloud as billows of amber like flame of fire, out of the locality north of Chaldea, signifying the wrath of God and sufferings to follow, Nah 1:3; Deu 4:24; Jer 23:19; Jer 25:32.
Verse 5 relates the appearance of four living creatures that came out of the midst of the cloud of amber-like, glowing fire. These four living creatures of diverse appearances seem to symbolize divine judgment that is to be inflicted upon Chaldea by their Gentile world powers, empowered by the Spirit of God.
Each “living creature” had or held the primary identity of a man, denoting knowledge. Through the face of a) a lion, denoting strength, and 2) and ox, denoting perseverance, and 3) an eagle, denoting rapidity of flight, are given to each creature, signifying continual motion, action to minister judgment, v. 10, it is sent forth from the Lord, through the four living creatures, or Gentile powers, to bring Divine judgment from the north upon Chaldea.
Verse 6 asserts that each of the four living creatures, out of the cloud of amber fire (judgment fury) billowing out of the north, had four faces or sixteen faces and four wings. Three of the faces of each was a “false face,” as those of the lion, the ox, and the eagle. But it was following the face of a man that they went forward. They represented heathen or Gentile power that were to come out of the north, to bring fiery judgment upon Chaldea who now held God’s chosen people in captivity. Let not too much be read or interpreted into every symbol.
As the four creatures of Divine judgment here swooped, rolled, or advanced as Gentile powers to judge Chaldea, by the Spirit of judgment from the Lord, so the four living creatures of Revelation are always presented in Revelation as representing the redeemed from all Gentile nations, in praising God around the throne, in harmony with, yet separate from the redeemed of Israel and of the church, represented each by twelve elders (a total of 24) before the throne of God. These living creatures are always representatives of Gentile people or powers, as Gentile powers of Divine judgment in the Old Testament, and as redeemed Gentiles before the throne in the book of Revelation, Rev 4:4; Rev 4:6; Rev 4:9; Rev 5:6; Rev 5:8; Rev 5:14; Rev 7:11; Rev 20:4.
Verse 7 explains that each living creature had: 1) feet or legs that were straight, 2) soles of feet like a calf’s foot, soft on the bottom but firm, and 3) their feet sparkled like burnished or polished brass, symbolizing God’s purity. Daniel represented the four great Gentile world governments as four beasts, Daniel ch. 7.
Verse 8 further discloses that each man-like living creature had the hands of a man, indicating skill, Psa 78:72, one each under their four wings, on their four sides, v. 6. So each had four faces, four hands, and four wings, on their cube-like forms, on their four sides.
Verse 10 describes the four faces of each creature as of: 1) a man,) a lion, 3) an ox, and 4) an eagle.
It may be observed that these four symbols are found still on the ancient ruins in the Assyrian Empire area, upon ancient monuments. Apparently these ancient symbols go back to Nimrod, believed to be a builder of ancient cities to the days of the tower of Babel, the actual origin of Gentile or heathen civilization, in organized rebellion against God and His Divine order of: 1) morals, 2) ethics, and 3) worship and service, Gen 11:5-9; Mic 5:6.
Verse 11 continues to describe these four living creatures with their upturned wings and uplifted faces forward. Two wings of each was joined to each other from above and two of each covered their bodies as the set for flight or movement like an eagle going for its prey. Their direction was from Divine providence above.
Verses 12, 13 describe them as going straight forward, direct, neither “turning to the right nor the left,” Jos 1:7; 1Co 9:26-27. It is asserted that “where the Spirit was to go they went.” And they did not turn aside as they went, indicating absolute obedience in performing their mission of fiery judgment, v. 20. Their appearance was like bright lights, reflecting Divine glory, Psa 104:2; Dan 10:5-6; Mat 23:3.
Verse 14 asserts that these four living creatures “ran and returned” as the appearance of a flash of lightning, in a zig-zag form, performing their mission of Divine judgment fury almost like a flash by meteors of lightning. As also described Zec 4:10, as the eyes of the Lord run to and fro through the whole earth.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
We must first consider the intention of this Vision. I have no doubt but that God wished first to invest his servant with authority, and then to inspire the people with terror. When therefore a formidable form of God is here described, it. ought first to be referred to reverence for the teaching conveyed; for, as we have remarked before, and shall further observe as we proceed, the Prophet’s duty lay among a hard-hearted and rebellious people; their arrogance required to be subdued, for otherwise the Prophet had spoken to the deaf. But God had another end in view. An analogy or resemblance is to be held between this vision and the Prophet’s doctrine. This is one object. Then as to the vision itself, some understand by the four animals the four seasons of the year, and think that the power of God in the government of the whole world is here celebrated. But that sense is far-fetched. Some think that the four virtues are represented — because, as they say, the image of justice is conspicuous in man, that of prudence in the eagle, of fortitude in the lion, of endurance in the ox. Yet although this is a shrewd conjecture it has no solidity. Some take the contrary view, and think that four passions are here intended, viz. fear and hope, sorrow and joy. Some think that three faculties of the mind are denoted. For in the soul, τὸ λόγικον, is the seat of reason; θύμικον , that of the passions; ἐπιθυμήτικον , that of the lusts; and συντέρεσις that of the conscience. But these guesses are also puerile. It was formerly the received opinion, that under this figure were depicted the four Evangelists: they think Matthew was compared to a man, because he begins with the generation of Christ; Mark to a lion, because he begins at the preaching of John; Luke to an ox, because he begins his narrative by mentioning the priesthood; and John to an eagle, because he penetrates, as it were, to the secrets of heaven. But in this fiction there is no stability, for it would all vanish if it were to be properly examined. Some think it a description of the glow of God in the Church, and that the animals are here to be taken for the perfect who have already made greater progress in faith, and the wheels for the weak and undisciplined. But they afterwards heap together many trifles, which it is better to bury at once, and not take up our time ill refuting them. All these, then, I reject; and now we must see what the Prophet really does mean. I have already said, that it was the Almighty’s plan, when he gave commands to his Prophet so to honor him, that his doctrine should not be open to contempt. But the special reason which I touched upon must be considered — viz.: that God shortly points out by this symbol, for what purpose he sends his Prophet. For the visions have as great a likeness to the doctrine as possible. For this reason, in my opinion, Ezekiel says, behold! a whirlwind came out of the north The people had already experienced the vengeance of God, Mien he had used first the Assyrians and then the Babylonians to chastise them. Jeconiah, as we have seen, had gone into voluntary exile. The Jews thought that they would still have a quiet home in their city and country, and laughed at the simplicity of those who had so quickly gone into exile. The Prophet therefore says, that he saw a stormy wind from the north This rush of the wind or tempest ought to be referred to the judgment of God: for he wished to strike terror into the Jews, that they should not grow torpid in their security. After he has spoken concerning the storm or tempest, he adds — I saw four living creatures and four wheels connected together, to signify that their motion had not originated from chance but from God. These two things ought to be joined together, viz.: that the storm sprang up out of the north, and that God, the author of the storm, was beheld upon his throne. But in the meanwhile, that God’s majesty might the Jews, he says — I saw four living creatures and four wheels connected together By the four living’ creatures he understands cherubim: and we have no need of any other explanation, for he explains it so in chapter 10., when he saw God in the temple, the four living creatures were under his feet, and he says they are cherubim. Now we must see why four animals are here enumerated, when two cherubim only embraced the Ark of the Covenant; and next, why he describes four heads to each: for if he wished to accommodate his language to the rites of the Sanctuary, why did he not place two cherubim, with which God was content? (Exo 20:18😉 for he seems here to depart from the command of God himself: (Num 7:89) now, four heads and round feet, do not suit the two cherubim by whom the Ark of the Covenant was surrounded. But the solution is at hand: the Prophet so alludes to the Sanctuary, or, at the same time, to bend his discourse to the rudeness of the people. For their religion had become so obsolete, and their contempt of the law so great., that the Jews were ignorant of the use of tie Sanctuary; then they so worshipped God as if he were at a distance from them, and entirely rejected his providential care over human affairs. Here, then, we see how gross was their stupor, so that though often stricken, they never were aroused. Because the Jews were thus completely torpid, it became needful to propose to them a new form, and so the Prophet chooses half of it from the Sanctuary itself, and assumes the other half, as it was required for so rude a people; although he did not manufacture anything out of his own mind, for I am now speaking of the counsel of the Holy Spirit. God was, therefore, unwilling to drive the Jews away from the sanctuary, for that was the foundation of all right understanding of truth, but because he saw that the legal form was not sufficient, he therefore added a new supply, and as he gave each cherub four heads, so he wished their number to be four.
With regard to their number, I doubt not that God wished to teach us that his influence is diffused through all regions of the world, for we know the world to be divided into four parts; and that the people might know that God’s providence rules everywhere throughout the world, four cherubim were set up. Here also it is convenient to repeat, that angels were represented by cherubim and seraphim: for those who are called cherubim here and in Eze 10:0, are called seraphim in Isa 6:2; and we know that angels are called principalities and powers, (Eph 3:10,) and are rendered conspicuous by these titles, while Scripture calls them the very hands of God himself. (Col 1:16.) Since, therefore, God works by angels, and uses them as ministers of his power, then when angels are brought forward, there the providence of God is conspicuous, and his power in the government of the world. This, then, is the reason why not two cherubim only were placed before the Prophet’s eyes, but four: because God’s providence ought to be evident in earthly things, for the people then imagined that God was confined to heaven; hence the Prophet teaches not only that he reigns in heaven, but that he rules over earthly affairs. And for this reason, and with this end, he extends his power over the four quarters of the globe. Why, then, has each animal four heads? I answer, that by this, angelic virtue is proved to reside in all the animals. Yet a part is put for the whole, because God by his angels works not only in man and other animals, but throughout creation; and because inanimate things have no motion in themselves, as God wished to instruct a rude and dull people, he sets before them the image of all things under that of animals. With reference, then, to living creatures, man holds the first place, because he was formed after the image of God, and the lion reigns over the wild-beasts, but the ox, because he is most useful, represents all domestic animals, or, as they are usually called, tame animals. Since the eagle is a royal bird, all birds are comprehended under this word; and here I am not fabricating allegories, but only explaining the literal sense; for it seems to me sufficiently plain, that God signifies angelic inspiration by the four cherubim, and extends it to the four regions of the earth. Now:, as it is equally clear that no creature moves by itself, but that all motions are by the secret, instinct of God, therefore each cherub has four heads, as if it were said that angels administer God’s empire not in one part of the world only, but everywhere; and next, that all creatures are so impelled as if they were joined together with angels themselves. The Prophet then ascribes four heads to each, because if we can trust our eyes when observing the manner in which God governs the world, that angelic virtue will appear in every motion: it is then, in fact, just as if angels had the heads of all animals: that is, comprehended within themselves openly and conspicuously all elements and all parts of the world; — thus much concerning the four heads.
As to the four wheels, I do not doubt their signifying those changes which we commonly call revolutions: for we see the world continually changing and putting on, as it were, new faces, each being represented by a fresh revolution of the wheel, effected by either its own or by some external impulse. Since, then, there exists no fixed condition of the world, but continual changes are discerned, the Prophet joins the wheels to the angels, as if he would assert that no changes occur by chance, but depend upon some agency, viz., that of angels; not that they move things by their inherent power, but because they are, as we have said, God’s hands. And because these changes are really contortions, the Prophet says, I saw wheel within wheel; for the course of things is not continuous, but when God begins to do anything, he seems, as we shall again perceive, to recede: then many things mutually concur, whence the Stoics fancied that fate arose from what they called a connection of causes. But God here teaches his people far otherwise, viz., that the changes of the world are so connected together, that all motion depends upon the angels, whom he guides according to his will. Hence the wheels are said to be full of eyes. I think that God opposed this form of the wheels to the foolish opinion of men, because men fancy Fortune blind, and that all things roll on in a kind of turbulent confusion. God, then, when he compares the changes which happen in the world to wheels, calls them “full of eyes,” to show that nothing is done with rashness or through the blind impulse of fortune. This imagination surely arises from our blindness: we are blind in the midst of light, and therefore when God works, we think that he turns all things upside down; and because we dare not utter such gross blasphemy against him, we say that Fortune acts without consideration, but in the meantime we transfer the empire of God to Fortune itself. Seneca tells a story of a jester belonging to his wife’s father, who, when he lost the use of his eyes through old age, exclaimed that he had done nothing to deserve being cast into darkness — for he thought that the sun no longer gave light to the world; but the blindness was in himself. This is our condition: we are blind, as I have already said, and yet we wish to throw the cause of our blindness upon God himself; and because we do not dare openly to bring a charge against him, we impose upon him the name of fortune; and for this reason the Prophet says the wheels have eyes.
We now understand the scope of the vision, and we must next approach its several parts. After he has said, a wind sprung up from the north, and a great cloud, he adds, there was also a fire folding round itself Moses, in the ninth chapter of Exodus, (Exo 9:24,) uses the same word when he speaks of the storm which he caused in Egypt. There was fire en-folded or entwined, and the splendor of fire. Some shrewdly expound this splendor of the fire, as if God’s judgments were not obscure, but exposed to the eyes of all. I cannot agree in this meaning, nor do I think it correct. Here the majesty of God is described to us according to the usual scriptural method. He says, the fire was splendid in its circuit, and then there was as it were the appearance of “Hasmal” in the midst of the fire Many think Hasreal to be an angel or an unknown phantom, but, in my opinion, without reason, for Hasmal seems to me a color. Jerome, following the Greek, uses the word electrum, but surprises me by saying that it is more precious than gold or silver; for electrum is composed of gold, with a fifth part of it silver, hence, as it does not; exceed them both in value, Jerome was mistaken. But whether it was electrum or any remarkable color, it so clearly portrayed to the Prophet the majesty of God, that he ought to be wrapt in admiration, although the vision was not offered for his sake personally, but, as I have said before, for the Church at large. The color differed from that of fire, that the Prophet might understand that the fire was heavenly, and, as a symbol of God’s glory, had a form unlike that of common fire. Now follows:
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
2. THE VIEW GIVEN TO EZEKIEL OF THE LIKENESS OF THE GLORY OF THE LORD (Chap. Eze. 1:4-28)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.Eze. 1:4. The storm-cloud. A whirlwind, a tempest such as Job perceived (Eze. 38:1), or like that which Jonah encountered (Eze. 2:10), came out of the north, the region from which the Chaldean forces proceeded, and, in general, to the Jews, the region pregnant with destiny (Hengst.). A great cloud, and a fire infolding itself. Fire in volumes was mixed up with the cloud, and (Exo. 9:24) flashed hither and thither, circling round. A brightness was about it, the cloud, and out of the midst thereof, of the fire, as the colour of amber, or as the eye of chasmal. The appearance was such as gave tints, shone, burned like chasmal. The mild colour of amber does not seem to express the meaning of this uncertain word. There was a look like that of are glowing from the midst of the fire.
Eze. 1:5-14. The living creatures. Eze. 1:5. Out of this same fire came the likeness of four living creatures, representing all beings with life (Rev. 4:6); and, as the best representative of vital energies, each of the four had the likeness of a man. But not entirely so. Eze. 1:7. Their feet, including knee and thigh, were of the nature of a straight foot; they were upright, not bent, and that part which was next the ground was like the sole of a calfs foot, and they sparkled like the colour, the eye, the gleam of burnished, or shining, brass (Rev. 1:15). Their wings proceeded from their shoulders, for (Eze. 1:8) they had the hands of a man under their wings, one hand under each of their four sides. Eze. 1:9. Two wings of each were joined to a wing of each of its nearest neighbours, and as each had four faces, one of which looked towards a distinct quarter of the sky, they turned not when they went. So they went every one straight forward in the direction in which any one of their faces looked, and as a conjunct whole. Eze. 1:10. Of the four faces, one was like that of a man, another like that of a lion, another of an ox. and the fourth of an eagle. Eze. 1:11. Thus were their faces, and their wings were stretched upward; rather, and their faces and their wings were separated from above, i.e., it could be seen that their heads were distinct and their wings were distinct, though two wings of one were in contact with two wings of others. Eze. 1:12. They were moved by an irresistible impulse, and, separated as they were from one another, yet they were animated by one life-breath. Whither the spirit was to go, they went. Eze. 1:13. Their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of lamps, torches; it, the fire, was separate from, and went up and down among the living creatures. Eze. 1:14. The creatures had a motion which made the impression as of a flash of a meteor, or the zigzag course of lightning.*
Eze. 1:15-21. The wheels. Eze. 1:15. Behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces. Ezekiel saw wheels upon the ground, one in close proximity to each of the four creatures, and lower than they. Eze. 1:16. They four wheels had one likeness; each consisted of two wheels really, as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel, set in the other at right angles. Eze. 1:17. They went upon their four sides; they could go in any direction without turning round. Eze. 1:18. As for their rings, circumference or felloes, they were so high that they were dreadful, they had both height and terribleness, and full of eyes round about. Eze. 1:20. The spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. The same energy which actuated the former actuated the latter also, and they were one in standing, going, or rising upwards.
Eze. 1:22-28. The throned one. Eze. 1:22. Above the heads of the living creatures Ezekiel saw an expanse extended, having a colour like that of the terrible crystal, exciting fear by its purity and splendour. Eze. 1:23. Under the firmament, or expanse, which therefore came between the throne and the living creatures, were their wings straight, the one toward the other, joined to one another, as Eze. 1:11, and every one had two which covered; there was a wing for each side of their bodies. Eze. 1:24. When the living creatures were in movement the noise of their wings was like the voice of speech, rather, the noise of tumult, as the noise of an host. The sounds were heard only when they were in motion, for when they stood they let down their wings. Eze. 1:25. Their movement or rest was not self-directed, but was instigated or checked by a voice from the firmament that was over their heads, from Him who was on the throne, since, Eze. 1:26, above the firmament was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of the pale-blue sapphire stone, and upon the likeness of the throne, not the distinguishable form of a man, but the likeness as the appearance of a man. No man hath seen God at anytime. This manifestation had three aspectsEze. 1:27.
(1.) Over the dim form was shed shining light like to glowing ore, and the same as in Eze. 1:4, which radiated from the appearance of his loins even upward (chap. Eze. 8:2).
(2.) Upon the lower part, from the appearance of his loins even downward was as it were the appearance of fire.
(3.) All round was a shining light (Eze. 1:28), as the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain. Those three aspects were united to frame the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. The visions of God overpowered Ezekiel, I fell upon my face (Rev. 1:17).
The details of this wondrous vision may be summarised. A furious storm from the north is seen driving a vast cloud, pervaded and glowing with restless fires, and surrounded with radiance. From this fiery cloud four living beings appear, whose general aspect was that of man. Each had four different faces and four wings, and two of the wings were stretched out in juxtaposition to the wings of others. One spiritual energy stirred in the living creatures, and under its impulse they moved like meteors shooting across the field of vision and shining with the brightness of fire. By the side of each creature was a gigantic double wheel, not needing to turn when it changed from one direction to another. Eyes were set round the outer rims, and, possessed by the same energy as the living creatures, the wheels made all movements perfectly simultaneous with theirs. Above all was an expanse of awful pureness, and on which was the likeness of an azure throne. Some one in the figure of a man was seated on this thronethe upper half of his body shining like glowing metal, the lower half like fire, while, girdling round the throne, the hues of a bright rainbow were displayed. A voice proceeded from this throne-crowned expanse, at the sound of which the living creatures let down their wings in lowly reverence and silence. Ezekiel also heard himself addressed by an unseen speaker.
The appearances which accompanied the designation of Ezekiel, and also the repetition of their prominent aspects at other turns of his service, indicate the fact of a special meaning adhering to them in view of what was appointed him.*
1. The storm, the cloud, the fire, signify the wrath of God and the sufferings which may proceed therefrom. The Lord hath His way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of His feet (Nah. 1:3). Of Israel it is said, The Lord thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God (Deu. 4:24). Ezekiel is to prepare himself to carry a message of judgment and woe to his people; he is to be invested with authority and then to inspire them with terror. But not unmitigated. The brightness round about, which Eze. 1:27-28 signify to be that of the rainbow, warrants the belief that pity and grace will surround all inflictions. The false prophets spoke of deliverance without punishment and without repentance; Ezekiel has to bear down all such fancies, and proclaim that there will be scathing trials, but afterwards a new heart and the outpoured Spirit.
2. The cherubim. In chap. Eze. 10:20, Ezekiel intimates that the living creature which he saw by the Chebar he was led to recognise as the cherubims. An important part is assigned to them in the Bible. They were placed at the east of the garden of Eden; they stood over the Ark of the Covenant in Tabernacle and Temple. In each case they signified the divine presence. Hence the familiar expressions, He dwelleth between the cherubims, He sitteth between the cherubims. Their outstretched wings form the chariot of the cherubims. While it is also said, He rode upon a cherub, as a token that He rules all movements among the forces of nature. It was an obvious reflection of cherubic forms which John saw, in his Revelation, in the midst of the throne. What did they signify? In all cases they signify that God is present, and belong to His manifestation in living, organised creatures, in all quarters of the world. It is to be noted that the faces of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle on each are emblematical of the fulness and power of life. The fact that they were, in Ezekiel, double in number and more complex in form than those found in Tabernacle or Temple, is a fact which goes to prove that they were not real beings, not even angelic, but symbolical, and they at one and the same time proclaim and veil His presence. When He is honoured as He who is enthroned above the cherubim, He is acknowledged as the God who rules the world on all sides, in power, wisdom, and omniscience. They represent not God Himself, except as He is absolute Life, working in living creatures and moving them to the ends which He prescribes. In accordance with those ends, the cherubims had the appearance which bright burning coals of fire have, yet the fire was separate from them. Thus was indicated that all living creatures could be made to carry out the righteous judgment of God with ominous rapidity. So Ezekiel was prepared to testify that all hopes of earthly help which Israel might cherish would be speedily falsified.
3. The wheels. In the Buddhist, and partially in the Hindu religion, a wheel is the symbol of supreme power in the hands of certain monarchs, who are held to have exercised universal dominion, and who are, for this reason, termed turners of the wheel. A similar idea is conveyed here. The wheels represent the forces of nature as distinct from, but in working harmony with, living beings. This distinction appears from chap. Eze. 10:13, where the right interpretation seems to be that the wheels were called Galgal, whirlwind; and from chap. Eze. 10:6, where fire was taken from between them. Those natural energies revolve, along with the cherubim, under obedience to one and the same in working impulse. They are used when the Spirit will, and go to any quarter of the heaven that He wills. One wheel is within another; changes are complicated, and not in one direction only. They are full of eyes: the symbol of intelligent life; the living Spirits most peculiar organ and index. Space is everywhere equally present to them. They do not move blindly; they can perceive that which is opposed to the interests of God in any quarter; they can follow up all traces of His enemies, and carry His terrors wherever they should strike. Ezekiel must expect to speak of various trials hanging over all classes in Israel, and certainty in their infliction.
4. The appearance of a throned man.
Whose faith has centre everywhere,
Nor cares to fix itself to form.
This portion of the vision is seen upon a firmament which presents visible poetry, gloriously embossed, and whose psalms are writ in the rhythm of motion. It intimates that the heavens do rule, that all forms of animate and inanimate existence are under the will of the God of glory.* Besides, He is in a human form, which cannot be adequately seen, while the appearance of brightness and fire, and a rainbow, indicates the holiness and righteousness and grace which make a glorious unity in Him, and are possessed in absolute perfectiona type of the glory and grace of Him who was made flesh and dwelt among us. God is the unrepresentable One. He has no similitude; and yet, without any misgiving or sense of inconsistency, there are ascribed to Him acts and appearances which, without the conceptive or imaging faculty, can have for us neither force nor meaning (Lewis). The mighty voice and the movements with the cherubims point to the truth that He punishes His enemies and comforts His friends. Thus, sitting above the cherubims, He does the same as in the Temple, yet with differences. He was about to work in new methods, and would make known to exiled Israel, through Ezekiel, that if their covenant was to vanish away, He would not go. He would rule the heathen as well as His chosen seed, and one day evoke from all quarters the glorious cry, Hallelujah! for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth!
One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off Divine event,
To which the whole creation moves.
Tennyson.
There was nothing accidental or capricious about this vision; all was wisely adjusted and arranged, so as to convey beforehand suitable impressions of that work of God to which Ezekiel was now called to devote himself. It was substantially an exhibition by means of emblematical appearances and actions, of the same views of the Divine character and government, which were to be unfolded in the successive communications made by Ezekiel to the covenant-people (Fairbairn).
HOMILETICS
(1.) THE VISION IS SUGGESTIVE REGARDING THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD
I. As to its resources.
1. They are manifold. Wind and fire, thunder and lightning, the wisdom of man, brute force, patient labour, swift movements are significant portions of the materials which He can gather to execute His purposes. Men live in perpetual contact with forces which may affect their organs of sight, hearing, taste, touch, and which can be marshalled in any number, in any strength, and at any moment. We see wrongly if we do not see that the uniform of Gods servants is worn by all animate and inanimate creatures.
2. They are mutable. They are restrained and again in motion, now in the darkness and then in the light, here as a glow and there as a meteoric flash, acting inertly at one time and intensely after that. Changes continually come up. How remarkable are the vicissitudes in nations, churches, families. We are settled in nothingin nothing but in God.
3. They are inscrutable. We are but of yesterday and know nothing. We see little else than an item on the outside of a few of His resources. His judgments are a great deep. His providence walks and works, darkly, deeply, changeably, wheels about so that mortals cannot tell what conclusions to make as to all the causes which bring about changes, or as to all the consequences which shall follow. His ways are high above, out of our sight, with nations, councils, churches, individualsin panics, wars, demoralisations.
4. They are subordinated to one pervading impulse. Living or non-living, one and the same mighty Spirit works in all. The Spirit which brooded over a chaotic creation renews the face of the earth year by year. The Spirit of understanding and of love is the Spirit of judgment and of burning. He divides to each thing severally as He will; but there is no division in their camp. They do not fall out by the way. They work together to fulfil His word. There is no crookedness in their goings when He commands to go straight forward. They run very swiftly in accordance with the might by which He energises them. No bullet goes so fairly or rapidly to the target as do the manifold resources of God when stirred by the Spirit of life. Why should men resist Him? Why do they yield to a spirit of error, of lying, and of whoredoms, except on the ground that they rebel and vex the Holy Spirit? When will that kingdom which is righteousness, peace, joy in the Holy Ghost, be permanent on earth? But whatever discord may be introduced by men, the Spirit will not be baulked in His aims. He maketh the wrath of man to praise Him, and He will avenge the dishonour done to His righteousness and grace by means of the pliant resources at His command. They do not look back, that would have denoted unwillingness; nor turn aside, that would have intimated self-will; nor suspend their movements before their course is completed, that would have spoken of weariness. So should men follow obediently, unswervingly, persistently Him who guides wanderers into the way of life, and sustains them therein.
5. They inflict chastisement. Gales, fire, lightning, are disastrous in various ways to men. The doors of Lebanon open that the fire may devour its cedars. Snares, fire and brimstone, and an horrible tempest rain upon the wicked, and Ezekiel saw such agencies in action as ominous of calamities which he was to declare would befall his people. Thus, above Nebuchadnezzar and his desolating army; above losses, pains, bereavements; above wars, depression of trade, lowering of health, we must observe the signs of the Lord condemning untruthfulness, unrighteousness, formality, pride, selfishness. Who can stand before Him when once He is angry? Is there not a warning to cease to do evil, to learn to do well?
6. They may be brought from any quarter. Out of the north, as the Assyrians; out of the east, as the plague of locusts in Egypt; out of the north-east, as the Euroclydon in Pauls sea passage to Rome, Gods resources can be drawn. Men may boast of their soldiery or navy, of their preparedness for any war, of their civilization or religiousness, of their worship or their benevolence; but they lay themselves open to the menacing word, I the Lord do blow upon it. In front, in flank, or in rear assailants may fall upon them. Political changes and revolutions are, after all, only the moving of the shadow on the earthly dial-plate, that marks the mightier motions going forward in the heavens.Moore.
7. They radiate with mercy. His resources are not only for punishment. They are meant to show to men their evil and their need of repentance; to show that God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Judgment is His strange act. He wants to purify the world, though the process be slow, just as He is separating the dross from the heart of every believer in His Son. Even if a deluge of wrath is sent forth in order to sweep off evil habits from a people, after the floods have lifted up their voice the rainbow will appear. The covenant of the Lord is sure in faithfulness and mercy. Once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.
II. As to the representation of the divine.
1. It is supreme. All things are under His feet. He is a Prince upon His throne. Nothing stirs or rests, nothing develops or degenerates, nothing pains or soothes apart from His control. It is not a mechanical force which operates the changes of all creatures. It is ONE who possesses power, wisdom, righteousness, lovewho does His will among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of this earth. What can stand if He will overthrow? Who hinder if He will open the gates to anxiety, sorrow, shame, death?
2. It is closely allied to man. Ezekiel saw the likeness of the appearance of a man. We must not say that God is corporeal and has the figure of a man, but we can say that He has some striking affinities with human natureFor we are also His offspringand these foreshadow the mystery to be presented in the end of the world, and in which Paul grandly exults. God was manifest in the flesh. Therefore was it possible for the Son of God to pray That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us.
3. It is beyond our knowledge. He dwells in the light which no man hath seen or can see. He does condescend to our faculties, and by means of the hieroglyphics of undefined forms, of clouds, fire, living beings, revolutions, He shows us what His power and resources are. Our thoughts of Him suggest more riddles than they can solve. No research can define Him. There is a glory excelling that which men have beheld. He has never appeared as He really exists; but He has so appeared as to leave no doubt on the minds of His servants as to their knowing that they have seen God. If in certain aspects He is unknowable, yet all doubts as to His character pass away when Jesus reveals Him. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.
III. As to the preparation of a human servant.
1. Reverence. A deep feeling pervades Ezekiel of the holy supremacy of God. He who is glorious produces another state of mind than that which springs from a gratified curiosity or an increased knowledge, and the man who is not moved with fear before the manifested will of the Almighty is a man who will never serve Him aright. The sight of Christ Jesus, the only-begotten of the Father, will lay us at His feet, utterly self-emptied by a sense of His spotless glory and our unworthiness, and will be a prelude to His touch and restoration.
2. Weakness. Ezekiel cannot act of himself in co-operation with this all-ruling God. He has no strength to carry out such arduous duties as are justly required. But this weakness is his stepping-stone to light and power. When he is weak then is he strong, for God will bestow sufficient grace. Trust in self is gone that God may work. Wisdom, energy, faithfulness not his own are open to him.
3. Called. Ezekiel is thrilled by the voice which addresses him. He could not serve at all till that call of God was heard. Men cannot act for His kingdom by their own impulses and preparations. It is not colleges or ordination by man which make fit, but, hearing the voice of the Lord within, they can take up any service pointed out, in face of their other occupations, of fears, of reluctance. Before Him all events, however solemn, all duties, however untried, become dwarfed and feasible. In Christ strengthening me I can do all things. Between His voice and yours let no other voice come. You will know the mark to aim at, and reach the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. If we teach or preach about His kingdom without knowing we are warranted by Him, it is rather sin than service. His must be the impulse and sustainment.
4. Susceptible. Ezekiel hears; for it is little matter to have the call of God if we have not ears to hear. We must let that mind be in us which will desire to recognise and apprehend whatever He will say to us. If men did consult with Christ, and do all upon His warrants, they should never miscarry in their ways, but proceed farther in the paths of godliness in a few weeks than they did before in many years.Greenhill. Though you have no visions of God, unwavering fealty to His law will secure that He will guide you by His counsel, and afterwards receive you to glory.Goulty. When the suggestions and motions of Gods Spirit come on a receptive heart, they subdue carnal reasonings, stubbornness of will, all shifts and pretences, and frame a vessel unto honour, sanctified and meet for the Masters use, such as Ezekiel became.
It is of much concernment for ministers to see that they have a good and clear call to their ministry. If they can clear it up that God hath sent them, they may expect His assistance, His blessing, His protection, and success in their labours. However things prove, this will be their comfort in the midst of opposition, reproach, persecution, hazard of liberty and lives; I was called of God, I am in His work, in His way, He brought me into His vineyard, He will stand by me, I will go on, let Him do with me what He pleaseth.Greenhill.
ILLUSTRATIONS
God the life of all things.Nothing exists, subsists, is acted upon or moved by itself, but by some other being or agent; whence it follows that everything exists, subsists, is acted upon, and is moved by the First Being, who has no origin from another, but is in Himself the force which is life.Swedenborg. God has a world of real forces in Himself. He bears within Him an inexhaustible spring, by virtue of which He is the Life eternally streaming forth, but also eternally streaming back into Himself. He neither empties nor loses Himself in His vital activity. He is a sea of self-revolving Life; an infinite fulness of forces moves, so to speak, and undulates therein.Dorner. In this communication of life, God gives Himself so unreservedly that creation feels Him as her own, His joy as her joy, His peace as her peace, His strength as her strength, His personality and independence as her personality and independence.W. White.
Foreknowledge.The divine foreknowledge has put a stamp of that which was coming upon that which went before. This stamp is the basis of figurative language, of analogy, of typology, of prophecy, yea, of all knowledge. Every lower thing is a figure, a type, or prophecy of a higher thing; every present thing contains a representation of a coming thing, and every visible thing is more or less the image of things invisible. Gods foreknowledge thus becomes the great highway of knowledge to man, by which he can traverse not only the earth, but the universe so far as it is accessible to his inspection.W. White.
Clouds.Those war-clouds that gather on the horizon, dragon-crested, tongued with fire;how is their barbed strength bridled? What bits are these they are champing with their vaporous lips; flinging off flakes of black foam? Leagued leviathans of the sea of heaven, out of their nostrils goeth smoke, and their eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. Where ride the captains of their armies? Where are set the measures of their march? Fierce murmurers, answering each other from morning until eveningwhat rebuke is this which has awed them into peace? What hand has reined them back by the way by which they came? The wondrous works of Him which is perfect in knowledge? We have too great veneration for cloudlessness.Ruskin.
Human ignorance.There has never been a weak deity worshipped, and it is safe to say there never will be one. Man is too strong himself not to admire strength, and looks with pity or contempt upon weakness. And no deity can be pitied or despised and hold his sovereignty over mens minds. The heavens must be braced beyond the possibility of fall, or they who live beneath the dome could never gaze with awe into the overhanging spaces. I do not expect that any of mortal kind have a correct idea of God. How little do we know even yet of the qualities and uses of material and finite Nature! For Nature is yet a mystery. She sits like the veiled prophet in the inner temple of her abode, whose outer walls we in our groping have at last stumbled against, and upon the panels of whose mighty gates a few of our most ambitious scientists are beginning to rap. If, then, so little is known of Nature, how little indeed must we know of the Invisible Spirit, who is so removed from our senses that no man could look upon His face and live. How flippantly men talk of God! As if they could understand the measureless reality whose reflection they only behold! The men who say God must be this or that, must do this or that, are for the most part men who have great intellectual vanity and great spiritual ignorance. The bowed head, the closed eye, the hand on the mouth and the mouth in the dust,these are the evidences of piety, and, I may say, of spiritual knowledge also.W. H. Murray.
An infinite unknown.We are separated from it, not by any anger of storm, not by any vain and fading vapour, but only by the deep infinity of the thing itself.Ruskin. Capable are we of God, both by understanding and will; by understanding, as He is that sovereign truth which comprehends the rich treasures of all wisdom; by will, as He is that sea of goodness whereof whoso tasteth shall thirst no more.Hooker.
A Seer.The more I think of it, the more I find this conclusion impressed upon methat the greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religionall in one.Ruskin.
Law in the spiritual.Laws are operant in the things of the Spirit as truly as in the things of matter. The forces there are not disorderly, nor do the movements which they generate start haphazard. They are not impulsive, freakful, and fickle. They who suppose that the coming of the Spirit to human consciousness is the result of arbitrary sending and of periodical ordering, and not the result of a ceaseless and ceaselessly expressed benevolence, doubtless mistake. The anarchy must be reduced to order; the chaos taught the use and made to feel the force of law; the imperfect organisations of society be supplanted by the perfect. The Spirit, through change of custom, law, and habit, and by a gradual transition of the world from old to new, can, at last, after ages of revolution and growth, accomplish another structure.W. H. Murray.
God manifested.He the Creator, the Governor, became a presence clear and plain before mens hearts. He, by the marvellous method of the Incarnation, showed Himself to man. He stood beside mans work. He towered above, and folded Himself about, mans life. And what then? God in the world must be the standard of the world. Greatness meant something different when men had seen how great He was. Just suppose that suddenly Omniscience towered up above our knowledge, and Omnipotence above our strength, and the Infinite Wisdom stood piercing out of the sight of our ignorant and baffled skill. Must it not crush the man with an utter insignificance? He would be brought face to face with facts. He would measure himself against the eternal pillars of the universe. He would learn the blessed lesson of his own littleness in the way in which it is always learnt most blessedlyby learning the largeness of larger things. If you could only see God for ever present in your life, and Jesus dying for your soul, and your soul worth Jesus dying for, and the souls of your brethren precious in His sight, and the whole universe teeming with work for Him, then must come the humility of the Christian.Brooks.
In the divinity of His person there is laid an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable ground for the most unbounded confidence. If He were a being possessed of nothing higher than the highest possible endowments of humanity, we might well scruple to place in such an one a confidence stretching through eternity. But being God, in trusting in Him we rely upon a power that cannot be withstood, upon a wisdom which hath no limits, upon a truth that is infallible, upon a love that is unchangeable, upon a fidelity that cannot fail.W. White.
The enduring Word of God.We are not more unworldly than the patriarchs, more spiritual than the prophets, more heavenly-minded than the apostles; we are not nearer the great celestial verities than men of the olden timeat least by any philosophy, or science, or culture of our own that is independent of the study and the grace of the Scriptures; we are not beyond the Bible either in its letter or its thought. There are ideas there the world has not yet fathomed; there are words and figures there whose rich significance interpretation has not yet exhausted. The scriptural style and the scriptural language are not meant for one age, but for all ages. Its Orientalisms will grow in the West; its archaisms will be found still young in the nineteenth century. Science is ever changing, as it is ever unfinished; its language is ever becoming obsolete, as it is ever superseded; philosophy is continually presenting some new phase of its ever-revolving cycles; the political world is ever a dissolving view; literature becomes effete, and art decays; but the word of our God shall stand for ever. Not so sure are the types of nature as even the form and feature of this written word, if it be indeed the word of God, uttered in humanity, breathed into human souls, informing human emotions, conceived in human thoughts, made outward in human images, and indissolubly bound, as the wondrous narrative of the supernatural, in the long chain of human history.T. Lewis.
Changes.We are apt to fret and murmur at the motions of the wheels when they cross our hopes and interests; but if the Spirit of God be in the wheels and acts them according to His own pleasure, then all our impatience is groundless and sinful. We should stay and quiet our minds under all turns and changes in a world for discipline, rebuke, threatening, lamentation, calling.M. Meade.
Unity.The prophet, cast into the wide world and feeling himself lost in it, was led by the Divine Teacher into a region of thought to which the Israelite had been hitherto comparatively a strangerwas led to see how each part of the universe, which must have often seemed to him a storehouse of divided material idols, was pointing when seen by the divine light to a spiritual unity, as its explanation and its centre. It is Spirit only which distinguishes and unites, which brings each thing forth in its clearness and fulness, and brings all into harmony, a Spirit which had come from some higher region. There is One, human and divine, from whom this Spirit has proceeded, in whom it dwells perfectly.Maurice.
3. THE COMMISSION TO EZEKIEL (Chaps. 23, 115)
EXEGETICAL NOTES.Eze. 1:1. Son of man. This is the customary form of address to Ezekiel, and is used only of him and Daniel among all the prophets. As both were prophesying in captivity, the title must have been conditioned by that fact, and would signify to the exiled prophets, away from the city which God had chosen to place His name there, that above them He was who was the God of the spirits of all flesh, who would communicate with the souls He owned, and supply all that would make up for absence from the land of promise and covenant. The title hardly could intimate, as is said by commentators, that Ezekiel was in need of a continual reminder of his human origin and frailty and unworthiness, or that he was to watch against being puffed up by his visions, or that he was spoken to familiarly as a special friend of God. We may listen to the phrase as expressing both a contrast and a connection between the speaker and the hearer.
Eze. 1:2. The Spirit. Not the spirit of Ezekiel, as if he had been altogether unconscious and his spirit came to him again; nor scarcely the Holy Spirit, as operative in prophetic revelation; but the Spirit which was in the living creatures, and which, no doubt, was the Spirit of God.
Eze. 1:3. The children of Israel. The most common expression used by Ezekiel for his people, perhaps significant of an amalgamation already begun of the Jews with the remnants of the ten tribes formerly gone into captivity. To a rebellious nation, or to the nations, the rebels. They who were children of him who wrestled with the angel are deteriorated, not to the level of a heathen nation, as in Isa. 1:4, but to that of heathen nations.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
II. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE VISION 1:428
The call-vision of a prophet is of immense importance in understanding the prophet himself. The vision granted to Ezekiel was more symbolic than that of Isaiah or Jeremiah and is indicative of this mans more pronounced visionary and mystic nature. The account is replete with strange and even grotesque figures. Ancient Rabbis warned teachers not to expound the mystery of creation in the presence of more than one person, and the mystery of Ezekiels chariot-throne not even to the one, unless he was unusually wise and discreet.[63]
[63] Mishnah Hagiga 2, 1. Cited by Blackwood, EPH, p. 39,
Ezekiel beholds Yahwehs throne-chariot coming on a great storm cloud. The point of the vision is that God is arriving to be with His people. As one reads this visionary account he has a sense of awe, mystery, and irresistible power. If only this much can be learned from the account here given, the prophet will have accomplished his purpose. If the reader misses this in the reading of chapter 1, detailed analysis of the vision will be of little value.
Ezekiels inaugural vision is discussed under its five chief aspects: (1) the storm cloud (Eze. 1:4); (2) the cherubim (Eze. 1:5-14); (3) the wheels (Eze. 1:15-21); (4) the platform (Eze. 1:22-25); and (5) the throne (Eze. 1:26-28).
A. The Storm Cloud 1:4
TRANSLATION
(4) And I looked, and behold a stormy wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth and a radiant splendor round about, and from its midst something that appeared like polished bronze from the midst of the fire.
COMMENTS
Two kinds of visions are found in the Old Testament. In the objective type vision, the prophet is led to discover some meaning in an object upon which he is meditating, Any other person present could have seen the same object; only the significance of the object is given through special revelation. In the second type of vision the subjective type the vision is purely internal. It is something that only the prophet experiences. Ezekiels vision of the throne-chariot is doubtlessly of the subjective type.[64]
[64] Taylor (TOTC. p. 54) suggests that it was while Ezekiel was meditating on a black northern storm cloud that this vision developed. The physical and visible led into the spiritual and visionary. See also Blackwood, EPH, pp. 4041.
The first sight to meet the eyes of Ezekiel was a stormy wind. Association of deity with storm phenomena and fire is quite common in Hebrew thought.[65] The mighty thunderstorm is but the attendant of the throne of God. This storm must be a symbol of Gods omnipotent power. Within six more years Jerusalem would be destroyed by this stormy wind. Chapters 424 recount in detail Ezekiels description and prediction of that forthcoming judgment.
[65] E. g., Exo. 3:2; Exo. 19:16-19; Psa. 18:7-15; Psa. 29:3-8.
The stormy wind comes from the north. Why so? In other passages the Lord is depicted as going forth from Zion to accomplish His purposes. Probably the coming of the thunderstorm from the north has multiple significance. Perhaps this detail is designed to emphasize the universality of Yahweh. He was God of the captives in Babylon as well as of those who remained in Jerusalem. Then again, perhaps the violent thunderstorm coming from the north is to be connected with the enemy from the north concept of Jeremiah (Eze. 1:14; Eze. 4:6). God would employ a ruthless foe from the north the Chaldeans to bring about the final destruction of Jerusalem. The Jews through the eye of flesh would be able to see nothing in that destructive storm but grief and despair; Ezekiel through the eye of faith sees God.[66]
[66] Ellison (EMM, p. 22) sees in the reference to the north a reference to the Babylonian myth that the gods lived in the north. The storm cloud from the north would then mean that Yahweh had vanquished the pagan deities on the way. This interpretation seems a bit forced. Even more so is that contention of Currey (BC, p. 18) that the north was felt by the Jews to be the peculiar seat of the power of Yahweh, an interpretation based on an erroneous understanding of Psa. 48:2,
Accompanying the stormy wind was a great cloud. The cloud may be a portent of impending calamity[67] or perhaps better, a symbol of approaching deity. God would be present in the judgment which Ezekiel would learn was about to fall on Jerusalem.
[67] Fisch, SBB, p. 3.
Ezekiel does not dwell on the blackness of the cloud. He emphasizes rather its radiance. From that cloud fire was flashing forth. The Hebrew phrase is literally a fire taking hold of itself, i.e., a succession of outbursts of flame.[68] The fire here is probably lightning streaking across the blackness of the heavens. Those who see in this fire an indication that the Jerusalem Temple was to be burned[69] are probably reading too much into this descriptive detail.
[68] Currey (BC, p. 19) understands this to mean that the fire formed a circle of light about the cloud.
[69] Fisch, .SBB, p. 3.
A radiant splendor (nogah) surrounded the black storm cloud. This dazzling sight is not to be explained with Taylor[70] as the brightness of the desert sun lighting up the edges of the cloud. Still less was the radiant splendor produced by the fire that was flashing forth from the cloud.[71] It is rather the splendor of the glory of God which is being observed by Ezekiel in connection with the great cloud and stormy wind. It is almost impossible to talk about God for any length of time without mentioning light.
[70] Taylor, TOTC, p. 54.
[71] Fisch, SBB, p. 3.
In the midst of the great cloud was something that appeared like (lit., as the eye of) polished bronze (Heb. chashmal). The Hebrew word occurs only in Ezekiel, here, in Eze. 1:27 and Eze. 8:2, and therefore some uncertainty exists as to its precise meaning. The Septuagint and Vulgate have electrum, a substance composed of silver and gold. Cooke, however, traces chashmal back to an Akkadian word meaning polished bronze.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(4) A whirlwind came out of the north.The north is seen as the quarter from which the vision proceeded, not because the Babylonians conceived that there was the seat of Divine power (Isa. 14:13-14), but because it was common with the prophets to represent the Divine judgments upon Juda as coming from the north (see Jer. 1:14-15; Jer. 4:6; Jer. 6:1), and it was from that direction that the Assyrian and the Chaldan conquerors were accustomed to descend upon the Holy Land. The vision is actually seen in Chalda, but it has reference to Jerusalem, and is described as if viewed from that standpoint.
A great cloud.As in the Divine manifestation on Sinai (Exo. 19:9-16). The cloud serves at once as the groundwork for all the other details of the manifestationa place in, and by means of which, all are located, and also as a hiding-place of the Divine majesty, so that all may be seen which human eye can bear, and that which it cannot bear may yet be known to be there, shrouded in the cloud. The transposition of a single letter from the end of one word in the Hebrew to the beginning of the next will change the reading to a whirlwind out of the north brought on a great cloud.
A fire infolding itself.More literally translated in the margin, catching itself. The idea intended to be conveyed is that of flames round and round the cloud, the flashes succeeding one another so rapidly that each seemed to lay hold on the one that had gone before; there were tongues of flame, where each one reached to another. The same word occurs in Exo. 9:24, in connection with fire, and is there translated mingled. The vision thus far seems moulded on the natural appearance of a terrific thunderstorm seen at a distance, in which the great black cloud appears illuminated by the unceasing and coalescing flashes of lightning. So, with all its impressive darkness, there was a brightness about it.
As the colour of amber.Colour is, literally, eye. The word rendered amber (chasmal) occurs only in this book (here, and Eze. 1:27 and Eze. 8:2), and is now generally recognised as meaning some form of bright metal, either glowing in its molten state, or as the fine brass of Eze. 1:7 and Rev. 1:15, burnished and glowing in the light of the infolding flame. There is therefore now superadded to the first appearance of the natural phenomenon, a glowing eye or centre to the cloud, shining out even from the midst of the fire.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
THE VISION, Eze 1:4-28.
Here begins what Franz Delitzsch calls “the grandest of all biblical visions.” It came not on a festal day, but on the anniversary of the never-to-be-forgotten humiliation of the royal head of the nation. It came not to one of the priests in Jerusalem, but to a captive in the land of the Chaldeans. It was to the neediest and saddest that Jehovah revealed himself as glorious on the Chebar as on the Jordan. No painter has ever succeeded in representing these visions of God; even Raphael failed in this. The details were so numerous and the changes so rapid that no human brush nor human pen not even Ezekiel’s could fully picture and define the glorious ever-changing image. As Cornill says, a little, shortsighted man might criticise the details of a great cathedral this window might seem to him too narrow and the support of yonder beam too massive but when looked at from a distance all the irregularities melt into a wonderful harmony of unity whose grandeur overcomes us, while within the sanctuary may be felt the stillness and power of the breath of God. It is the same with the visions of Ezekiel. The immense and minute details, worked out with such care and patience, may bewilder the beholder, but they are parts of a majestic and perfect whole ( Der Prophet Ezechiel, pp. 281-283). Ezekiel struggled to tell that which was “unspeakable and full of glory.” His ears were filled continually with a noise of wings and wheels and spiritual thunders. His eyes were partially blinded by glories which even Moses was not able to bear. He was overpowered with shadows from a throne “formless with infinity.” He could not describe twice alike those ever-changing glories.
The tremor of an inexpressive thought,
Too self-amazed to shape itself aloud,
O’erruns the awful curving of his lips.
One thing, however, stands out clear among these mysteries: the majesty of God and his supremacy over all things. There is a curious correspondence between the latest philosophic poetry and Ezekiel’s thought. The real nearness, the vital immanency, of God to all life was never more vividly expressed even by Emerson, than by this ancient poet and prophet-philosopher. Ezekiel does not, like Emerson, sink the world-soul into the world-all he never falls into the bottomless pit of pantheism but the sense of the Infinite fills every verse with its majestic presence.
Being above all beings! Mighty One!
Whom none can comprehend and none explore;
Who fill’st existence with thyself alone;
Embracing all; supporting, ruling o’er,
Being whom we call God, and know no more.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
VISION OF GOD’S CHARIOT.
4. Out of the north The region of storm, and also of divine mystery. The Hebrews looked to the north as the sacred quarter (Psa 48:2; Jer 1:13), as did also all other ancient peoples. (See Warren, Paradise Found; Oneil, Night of the Gods.) The oldest dated tomb on the earth, the Pyramid of Medum, opens to the north. Yet it may be that, as the highway from Palestine entered Tel-abib from the north, Ezekiel was praying toward the holy city when the vision came as the answer to his prayer.
Whirlwind cloud So God often reveals himself (Exo 19:16; Psa 77:18). The first sight of the coming of Jehovah, far in the distance, is like the coming of a tempest. God’s best revelations often follow after the storm. It is peculiarly appropriate that to this discouraged captive the vision of glory with the rainbow around it should come out of the clouds of wrath. This is the cloud of glory which had left the holy of holies and passed out to the Mount of Olives, abandoning Jerusalem and the temple to the hands of their enemies in order to protect the little band of true worshipers in a foreign land (chaps. 10, 11).
The sun and every vassal star,
All space beyond the soar of angel wings,
Wait on His word; and yet He stays His car
For every sigh a contrite suppliant brings.
A fire infolding itself
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Juggernaut of God ( Eze 1:4-28 ).
‘And I looked, and behold a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with a fire enfolding itself (or ‘flashing continually’), and a brightness round about it, and out of the midst of it as the colour of amber out of the midst of the fire.’
He describes the scene in terms of a great storm, with the stormy wind, the great cloud and the constantly flashing lightning. But there was an added extra for there was something in the midst of this storm that was like the colour of brightly shining metal (amber), which later he describes as being part of the vision of God (see Eze 1:27). Storm terminology is regularly used to depict theophanies elsewhere (Job 38:1; Job 40:6; Psa 18:9-15; Psa 18:29; Zec 9:14 and compare Act 2:1-4).
‘Behold a stormy wind came out of the north.’ The idea of winds associated with the living creatures (Eze 1:5) reminds us of 2Sa 22:11; Psa 18:10, ‘He rode upon a cherub and did fly, yes, He flew swiftly on the wings of the wind’, and this, in context, amidst fire and clouds and darkness. The thought includes speed of movement around the world with no restriction, and active, invisible power. The fact that it came ‘from the north’ indicates that Ezekiel was not so lost in the vision that he was not aware of his whereabouts, although Isa 14:13 suggests that ‘the far north’ was seen as the direction in which lay the gathering of the heavenly hosts of Yahweh in ‘the mount of the congregation’, in the heavens, above the stars of God.
‘A great cloud.’ Manifestations of God to His people were regularly described as accompanied by cloud associated with fire (Exo 19:9; Exo 19:16; Exo 24:15-18; Exo 40:34-38). The idea behind it is that God cannot be seen in His full glory by man. Man cannot see God and live. Therefore God in His mercy approaches in veiled form.
‘A fire enfolding itself, and brightness round about it.’ This reminds us of the flame of a sword (lightning?) that prevented access to the tree of life (Gen 3:24), and the many times God is revealed in fire (e.g. Gen 15:17; Exo 3:2; Exo 19:16; Exo 19:18; Exo 24:17). It revealed that God is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29 compare Deu 4:24), dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen nor can see (1Ti 6:16).
‘And out of the midst of it as the colour of amber out of the midst of the fire.’ By ‘amber’ is indicated the appearance of some kind of brilliantly shining metal. It is used in Eze 1:27 to indicate the appearance of the likeness of the glory of Yahweh.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Eze 1:4. And I looked, &c. God’s anger and judgments are frequently compared to a whirlwind; and this whirlwind is represented as coming out of the north, to denote Nebuchadnezzar, who was to come from that quarter to destroy Jerusalem. Though Ezekiel was in Mesopotamia, God represented objects to him as if he had been in Judaea. As Nebuchadnezzar was only the instrument of God’s vengeance upon the Jews, God himself is here described as coming to take that vengeance. It is very evident from this whole description, that the appearance of God, as emblematically represented after the fall of man at the gate of paradise, Gen 3:24 and afterwards in the holy of holies, is here described by the prophet. The second divine Person, the Jehovah of the Jews, is particularly spoken of in the 26th and following verses, as seated upon this throne of the cherubim, this seat of glory, which is spoken of as in motion and activity, from the peculiar circumstances of those providential judgments which the Almighty was now about to take upon the ungrateful people among whom he had condescended to fix this throne of his glory. The reader will find in the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation the same grand scene opened by St. John, as introductory to those prophetic denunciations which he is about to make in that book. In the interpretation of Scripture, it is always of the first importance to consider the connection and coherence of the parts: Ezekiel tells us, that he saw visions of God; plain and prophetical revelations of the divine will; and, in the introduction to these revelations, he gives us a striking description of the Divinity in glory, and as preparing to execute his judgments, taken from the temple, whence only, as a priest and a prophet, he could properly derive his ideas. And as it is on all hands allowed, that the holy of holies was a type of the true heavens, (see Heb 9:24.) and as from all the representations of Scripture we are assured, that the divine throne in those true heavens is surrounded by adoring angels, there seems the utmost reason to conclude that the cherubim, or living creatures, spoken of here, in the Revelation, and in other parts of Scripture, are representative of the angels; an opinion which I have mentioned before in the note on Exo 25:18. I am very well aware with what severity this opinion will be treated by some, and at the same time I have candour enough to confess, that there are many and great difficulties in it. But I find still greater in every other; and, from the most mature and impartial consideration, do sincerely believe, that this interpretation is most agreeable to the tenor of Scripture. The cherubim represented by a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, have been thought by some to be the symbols of strength, address, prudence, and irresistible wisdom, which is excluded from no place, and is superior to all difficulties; and in this view the whole vision is considered as a strong representation of the majesty and power of God, under the appearance of a warrior in a triumphal chariot; which coincides, in a great measure, with what I have advanced above; namely, that this vision represents God in glory, attended by his great ones, those angels who excel in wisdom and strength, coming with a mighty prince from the north, to take vengeance on that people, and that temple where, under this emblematical representation, he had been pleased to make his residence in the holy of holies.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
I desire to speak with all possible diffidence, and with an holy awe upon my mind, when I say, that I conceive, the close of this fifth verse, throws a light upon the whole of this vision. Those four living creatures, are said to have the likeness of a man. Is not this evidently in allusion to the human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ? If the Reader will compare the account which the beloved Apostle gives, of the vision he saw, in an age so distant as John lived from Ezekiel, (Rev 4:6-8 ), he will I think, be led to conclude, that the vision is one and the same. At least it must have proceeded from one and the same Almighty Teacher. And the situation of both Ezekiel and John, at the time of this vision was similar. Ezekiel in captivity, and John a banished exile. Sweet thought to God’s people! A prison or banishment may shut his people up; but nothing can shut God out!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Eze 1:4 And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness [was] about it, and out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber, out of the midst of the fire.
Ver. 4. And I looked, and, behold. ] In this ensuing mysterious vision of a whirlwind, four cherubims, four wheels, a throne upon the firmament, formidabilis Dei forma proponitur, is set forth “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord,” as it is expounded, Eze 1:28 , that hereby the people’s arrogance might be the better subdued, the prophet’s doctrine more reverently received, and the prophet confirmed in his calling. The sum of this celestial vision is, that the divine providence doth rule in the world, and is exercised in all parts thereof, and not only in heaven, or in the temple, or in Jewry, as the Jews then thought. As for the changes in the world, which are here compared to wheels, they befall not at all adventures, or by haphazard, but are effected by God, though all things may seem to run upon wheels, and to happen as it fortuneth. At the day of judgment, at utmost, men shall see a harmony in this discord of things, and providence shall then be unriddled. Meanwhile, God often wrappeth himself in a cloud, and will not be seen till afterwards. All God’s dealings be sure will appear beautiful in their season, though for the present we see not the contiguity and linking together of one thing with another.
A whirlwind came out of the north,
A great cloud.
And a fire infolding itself.
And a brightness was about it.
Out of the midst thereof as of the colonr of amber.
a Liv.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Eze 1:4-14
4As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire. 5Within it there were figures resembling four living beings. And this was their appearance: they had human form, 6Each of them had four faces and four wings. 7Their legs were straight and their feet were like a calf’s hoof, and they gleamed like burnished bronze. 8Under their wings on their four sides were human hands. As for the faces and wings of the four of them, 9their wings touched one another; their faces did not turn when they moved, each went straight forward. 10As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. 11Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above; each had two touching another being, and two covering their bodies. 12And each went straight forward; wherever the spirit was about to go, they would go, without turning as they went. 13In the midst of the living beings there was something that looked like burning coals of fire, like torches darting back and forth among the living beings. The fire was bright, and lightning was flashing from the fire. 14And the living beings ran to and fro like bolts of lightning.
Eze 1:4 a storm wind coming from the north God is sometimes identified with a storm (i.e., Sinai, cf. Exodus 19). The north is often used in the OT for impending judgment (i.e., Jer 1:12-14; Jer 4:6; Jer 6:1). But here it is a symbol of acceptance and renewal. YHWH Himself is coming to be with the exiles (in Isa 14:13 a northern mountain is God’s dwelling).
a great cloud with fire flashing fourth continually This would have reminded Ezekiel and his readers of Exo 19:9; Exo 19:16; Exo 19:18, the inauguration of the Mosaic covenant when YHWH visits Mt. Sinai/Horeb and gives the Ten Words to Moses (and, the rabbis say, the oral law).
The literal phrase is and fire taking hold of itself. This exact phrase is also found in Exo 9:24 (i.e., BDB 77 and BDB 542, KB 534, Hithpael PARTICIPLE).
All of the prophets refer to the Mosaic Covenant. They judge Israel in light of her disobedience (cf. Deuteronomy 27-29) to its commands. Ezekiel will contrast
1. the current temple practices (cf. Ezekiel 8-11) with a future temple (cf. Ezekiel 40-48)
2. current shepherds (i.e., leaders) with a future leader (cf. Ezekiel 33)
His readers had no other categories to relate to a restoration by YHWH than this one! The New Covenant (cf. Jer 31:31-34; Eze 36:27-38) and its focus on individual faith and faithfulness (i.e., Ezekiel 18, 33) would be a shocking revelation which would have seemed to depreciate both the Mosaic Covenant and Israelite corporality!
something like glowing metal Throughout the book of Ezekiel his visions are described in terms like (BDB 198) or similar to. It is obvious that Ezekiel is doing the best that he can in describing that which is not normative.
Notice the different phrases used to describe this vision.
1. bright light or brightness (BDB 618 I) around it
2. glowing or gleaming metal in the midst of it
a. amber – LXX, NKJV, NRSV, NJB, JPSOA
b. bronze – TEV
c. brass – NEB
d. electrum (mixture of gold and silver) – LXX, Vulgate
The word’s origin and meaning are uncertain (found only in Eze 1:4; Eze 1:27; Eze 8:2), but context denotes a brilliant, glowing substance (cf. Eze 1:4; Eze 1:27; Eze 8:2 only). YHWH is often seen as a light phenomenon (cf. Exo 13:21; 2Sa 22:13; Psa 89:15; Psa 90:8; Eze 1:4; Eze 1:27; Eze 8:2; Rev 22:5).
fire
SPECIAL TOPIC: FIRE
Eze 1:5 the four living beings These throne creatures are first described in Exo 25:18-22; Exo 37:7-9. It is uncertain if there are two Cherubim (i.e., two on the mercy seat of the ark) or four (two at each end of the ark and two on the lid). This same confusion can be seen in Solomon’s Temple (cf. 1Ki 6:23-28; 2Ch 3:10-14). Jewish tradition has four and is the origin of the four of this vision.
I have always held to only two (on the lid) from Exodus with Solomon expanding the size of everything in the tabernacle when he built the Temple in Jerusalem (cf. 1 Kings 6). By the way, Ezekiel felt the same freedom (or revelation) to expand and change the temple further in chapters 40-48.
Just a note on the term cherub (BDB 500). Several possible sources.
1. Akkadian, lesser spiritual being
a. advisor to the gods
b. protector of the faithful (from Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel, vol. 2, p. 319)
2. Assyrian
a. to be gracious
b. ADJECTIVE, great or mighty
c. similar to the name of the winged bulls on the gates of Nineveh
3. BDB mentions possibility of thunder cloud (Psa 18:11)
They are described again in Ezekiel 10. They are the origin of the living creatures of Rev 4:6-8. Their description changes from time to time, but it is obvious that they are the same group of angelic creatures (i.e., throne guardians). Ezekiel recognizes them as Cherubim in Ezekiel 10, but not here in Ezekiel 1.
SPECIAL TOPIC: CHERUBIM
SPECIAL TOPIC: SYMBOLIC NUMBERS IN SCRIPTURE
Eze 1:6-10 See Special Topic above.
Eze 1:7
NASBfeet were like a calf’s hoof
NKJV, NRSV,the soles of their feet were like the soles of calves’ feet
TEVthey had hoofs like those of a bull
NJBthey had hooves like calves
This is the only place this detail is mentioned. The Hebrew term feet is really soles (BDB 496 #3).
Remember this is imagery! It is a vision! Accuracy and detail are not the issue, but the overall effect. God is coming and the heavenly court with Him!
burnished bronze This metallic imagery (BDB 887 and 638 I) describes heavenly beings.
1. here the Cherubim
2. the powerful angel in Dan 10:6
3. the glorified Jesus in Rev 1:15; Rev 2:18
Eze 1:8 wings There are several angelic creatures who are said to have wings.
1. the Cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant, Exo 25:20; Exo 37:9; 1Ki 6:24; 1Ki 6:27; 1Ki 8:6-7; 2Ch 3:11-13; 2Ch 5:7-8
2. the Seraphim of Isaiah’s heavenly throne room vision, Isa 6:2
3. the living creatures of Ezekiel’s vision (i.e., called Cherubim in Eze 10:1), Eze 1:8; Eze 1:24
4. the female angels of Zechariah’s vision, Zec 5:9
5. even used metaphorically of YHWH’s special care (i.e., female bird, cf. Mat 23:37), Rth 2:12; Psa 17:8; Psa 36:7; Psa 57:1; Psa 61:4; Psa 63:7; Psa 91:4 (also see Gen 1:2; Exo 19:4; Deu 32:11)
6. imagery of John in Revelation (cf. Eze 4:8; Eze 9:9 from Ezekiel)
7. regular angels do not have wings in OT or NT
Eze 1:9 their wings touched one another, their faces did not turn as they moved This is a vision of the mobile throne chariot of God. This imagery may go back to David’s Psalm of praise in 2Sa 22:11. The living creature’s wings and the wheels formed a hollow square with burning coals in its midst and over it all a blue ice-crystal canopy (cf. Eze 1:22, in Rev 4:6 it is the floor).
Eze 1:10 all four had the face of the lion The two Cherubim (BDB 500) are described in Exo 25:20 as having one face that faced the middle of the Mercy Seat. In Revelation 4 each one had a separate face similar to the description here. The early church fathers tried to ascribe these different faces to the different gospel writers: Matthew, the lion; Mark, the ox; Luke, the man; John, the eagle. It is best to stay somewhat neutral on specific interpretations of these visions. Obviously it refers to some type of angelic order, which is very closely identified with the Throne of God!
Eze 1:11 and two covering their bodies Without trying to read too much into this phrase, there are several ways to take it.
1. sense of modesty (cf. Isa 6:2, where feet may be a euphemism referring to the male sexual organs, cf. Ruth 3; 1Sa 24:3)
2. sense of preparation for action
3. in Isaiah 6 and Rev 4:8 they had six wings.
Eze 1:12 the spirit This verse must be interpreted in light of Eze 1:20-21, which seem to imply the spirit of the four living creatures themselves (cf. Eze 1:21 c). However, it must be admitted that the language of Eze 1:12 implies a separate personal will (i.e., God in the metaphor of His Spirit [i.e., Gen 1:2]). See Special Topic: Spirit in the Bible .
Eze 1:13 This verse tries to describe something that is occurring in the midst of the box formed by the Cherubim wings, the wheels, and the crystal covering. Whatever it was, it was below the throne (cf. Eze 1:26). Notice the parallelism, which attempts to describe the indescribable.
1. burning coals of fire
2. torches darting back and forth among the living beings
3. bright fire
4. lightening flashing from it
One wonders how Eze 1:14 is related to Eze 1:13. The Peshitta, NKJV, and REB translate Eze 1:13 as if it describes the living creatures themselves and not the coals of fire (LXX, NASB, NRSV, TEV, NJB). The answer to this confusion is rectified by JPSOA, which puts a full stop after the first phrase of Eze 1:13, thereby relating it to the living creatures of Eze 1:12.
I assume Eze 1:13 does not describe the Cherubim, but is a sacrificial image going back to the tabernacle. It is uncertain if it refers to (1) coals on the altar of incense, which were used to make good smelling smoke which veiled the view of YHWH, who dwelt between the wings of the Cherubim over the Ark of the Covenant (cf. Exo 30:1-10; Exo 37:5-28) or (2) the sacrificial altar (cf. Exo 27:1-8; Exo 38:1-7) at the front of the entrance to the tabernacle/temple where sacrifices (cf. Leviticus 1-7) were brought and given to the priests. These sacrifices allowed sinful humans to approach a holy God!
lightning I take this opportunity to discuss the accommodation used by God to communicate His true revelation to a particular historical/geographical people. There are two items that especially fit into an Ancient Near Eastern setting (i.e., multi-faced animals, spiritual guardians, and lightning). God chooses imagery that His people have seen in other religions, but now they apply to YHWH.
1. The three heavens described by Babylonians as made of gem stones (NIDOTTE, vol. 4, p. 164).
2. Lightning is a common weapon in the hand of Canaanite gods, which are usually depicted on mountains (cf. Eze 1:4, north, cf. Isa 14:13).
3. The multi-faced angelic guardians are also common in Mesopotamia (and Egypt), where they guard the entrance of temples and palaces (cf. IVP, Bible Background Commentary, p. 690).
YHWH often takes the names of foreign deities to describe Himself.
1. King of Kings
2. winged disk (sun)
3. God of heaven
In this way He shows that He is the only true God. The only universal God of creation and redemption. We must be careful as moderns
1. not to make the images literal
2. not to assume cultural borrowing has theological significance of reality to the false gods of the nations
3. that biblical images are just thatimages attempting to convey spiritual reality! History is theologically affected and theology is historically/culturally affected. This is how human communication works. We move from the concrete to the figurative and from the known to the new reality!
Eze 1:14 The question again has to do with the referent. It is
1. the living creatures, Peshitta, NASB, NKJV, NRSV, TEV, NJB
2. the central fire, JPSOA
It seems to me that Eze 1:5-12; Eze 1:14 describe the living creatures, but Eze 1:13 describes a central fire (cf. Eze 10:2; Eze 10:7; Isa 6:6; Rev 8:5). But the issue cannot be definitively solved. The MT (JPSOA) implies that it all refers to the living creatures.
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
behold. Figure of speech Asterismos. App-6.
whirlwind. Hebrew. ruach = spirit, but it came to be rendered “storm or whirlwind”. Note the three symbols of Jehovah’s glory, Storm, Cloud, and Fire. Compare Nah 1:3. Rev 4:5.
out of the north. See note on Psa 75:6, and Isa 14:13.
infolding itself = taking hold of itself. Revised Version margin, “flashing continually”. Human and finite language is unable to find words to express infinite realities. It may mean spontaneous ignition: i.e. without the application of external fire. Compare Exo 9:24.
colour. Hebrew. “eye”. Put by Figure of speech Metonynmy (of Adj evict), App-6, for colour.
amber: or, glowing metal.
out of : or, in.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Eze 1:4-14
Eze 1:4-14
And I looked, and, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with a fire infolding itself, and a brightness round about it, and out of the midst thereof as it were glorying metal, out of the midst of the fire. And out of the midst thereof there came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man; and every one had four faces, and every one of them had four wings, and their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass. And they had the hands of a man under their four wings on their four sides; and they four had their faces and their wings thus: their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went every one straight forward. And as for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and they four had the face of a lion on the right side; and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; and they four had also the face of an eagle. And their faces and their wings were separate above; two wings of every one were joined one to another, and two covered their bodies. And they went every one straight forward, whither the spirit was to go, they went; they turned not when they went. As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches; the fire went up and down among the living creatures; the fire was bright; and out of the fire went forth lightning. And the living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning.”
This, of course, is the first part of the great vision of the glory of God. We fully agree with Howie that, “A detailed discussion of the vision is not necessary or vital to the understanding of its meaning.” We are certain that Ezekiel reported to us what he saw; but, even so, there is no way that any fully accurate picture of this remarkable vision is conceivable on the part of any person whomsoever.
The omnipotence, ubiquitousness, omniscience, and all of the other attributes of Deity are suggested and symbolized by this vision. The infinite energy, speed, intelligence, and abilities of the Almighty God appear here as in a flash of lightning, instantly, overwhelmingly, unfathomable, and awe-inspiring.
Feinberg reports that the Jewish rabbis gave this comment on the four living creatures:
“Man is exalted among creatures; the eagle is exalted among birds; the ox is exalted among domestic animals; and the lion is exalted among wild beasts. All of these have received dominion, and greatness has been given to them; yet they are stationed below the chariot of the Holy One.”
Another interpretation of the four living creatures is that, “They are representative of the four corners of the earth, and of the sovereignty of God over all things. Also, the four living creatures have been likened unto the four gospels in Christian theology. The apostle John’s Apocalypse also has this element of the four living creatures associated with God’s throne.
Such things as the burning coals of fire, glorying metal as in the furnace, and the fire running up and down among the living creatures suggests the utter purity of God and the necessity of his punishing sin.
Three times in this chapter it is stated that “they turned not when they went.” With four faces each, any direction in which they moved would have been straight ahead! The ability of this mobile bearer of the throne of God to move in any direction instantly is suggested by the expression “flash of lightning” in Eze 1:14.
Some scholars have tried to find the origin of some of Ezekiel’s terminology here in the things he might have seen in Babylon, such as the storm cloud; but we like what Eichrodt said of this:
“Ezekiel’s description is not the result of a calculated piece of construction, such as is attributed to him in many commentaries. Such a pedestrian type of criticism is utterly blind to the freedom with which this picture (of Ezekiel’s) makes use of traditional ideas, and how tremendously impressive spiritual content is provided with the form that best suits it.”
Each of the four living creatures facing in all directions suggests that, “All parts of the universe alike are open to the gaze of God.”
All of the first part of this remarkably complicated vision reveals nothing of the Divine Person whose glory is being symbolized; and only when we come to Eze 1:26 is the likeness of the Holy One mentioned.
We cannot but be conscious here that Ezekiel is describing the indescribable, hence the continual use of such expressions as “likeness of” and “as it were,” a usage that continues to the very end of the description. Human language is simply inadequate for the conveyance of the intriguing mystery revealed to Ezekiel in this vision of the glory of God.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
a whirlwind: Isa 21:1, Jer 1:13, Jer 1:14, Jer 4:6, Jer 6:1, Jer 23:19, Jer 25:9, Jer 25:32, Hab 1:8, Hab 1:9
a great: Eze 10:2-4, Exo 19:16-18, Exo 24:16, Exo 24:17, Deu 4:11, Deu 4:12, 2Ch 5:13, 2Ch 5:14, 2Ch 6:1, 2Ch 7:1-3, Psa 18:11-13, Psa 50:3, Psa 97:2, Psa 97:3, Psa 104:3, Psa 104:4, Isa 19:1, Nah 1:3-6, Hab 3:3-5, Heb 12:29
infolding itself: Heb. catching itself
colour: Eze 1:27, Eze 8:2, Eze 10:8, Eze 10:9, Rev 1:15
Reciprocal: 1Ki 19:11 – and a great 1Ki 22:17 – I saw 2Ki 2:11 – General Job 38:1 – General Isa 6:2 – seraphims Eze 3:23 – the glory Eze 43:3 – according to the appearance Zec 6:6 – the north Mat 28:3 – countenance Rev 4:6 – the midst Rev 14:1 – I looked
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Eze 1:4. The Babylonian captivity as a whole had been going on for 13 years when Ezekiel began to write, but tile complete subjugation of Judah was still six years in the future. Hence it was appropriate for the prophet to start his great book as if it were all stilt in the future. This accounts for the coming of the whirlwind from (he north, since the Babylonians came into Palestine from that direction. (See the note on that with the comments in Isa 14:31 in volume 3 of this Commentary.) A whirlwind is not only strong and swift but its circulating motion tends to draw articles toward its center. That is why the whirlwind was Heen infolding itself. The second word is not in the original but tile first is from t.AQAeu which Strong defines, A primitive root; to take (in the widest variety of applications).’ The simple meaning of the passage is that this combination of whirlwind ami cloud was taking hold of the surrounding materials. The appropriateness of this illustration will appear as the chapter proceeds. There is some uncertainty in tiie works of reference about the word amber, but all agree that it is something that has a distinctive glow as of something highly polished. Again the figure will be seen to be appropriate as we get to the central subject of the chapter.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Eze 1:4. I looked I very diligently surveyed the things which were represented to me in the vision, and behold a whirlwind Denoting the indignation and judgments of God; a quick, impetuous, and irresistible vengeance: see the margin. It is described here as coming out of the north, because, as has been before observed, the Chaldean army, by which the judgment was to be executed, would, for convenience of forage and water, march first northward, and then turn about toward Judea, so that they did, strictly speaking, come into it from the north. A great cloud It is usual to express any great trouble by a great, dark cloud hanging over peoples heads. And here, in particular, it seems to signify the calamity coming on Judea by the Chaldean invasion. And a fire infolding itself A fire appearing in folds, like one wreath within another. This was indicative of Gods avenging justice, for God is described in Scripture as a consuming fire, when he comes to execute his judgments upon sinners: see Deu 4:24. And a brightness was about it Clear discoveries of Gods holiness and justice, which, it is thus signified, would be made manifest in what was about to be done. Out of the midst thereof as the colour of amber Rather, as the appearance of amber. There was a bright pellucid appearance. Newcome. But Bochart shows that , the word used in the LXX., signifies not only amber and crystal, but a metal compounded of gold and silver, or of gold and brass; and thinks that the last, called , Rev 1:15, best suits this place. This seems to have been a symbolical representation of the Jewish people; for as this compound metal was not consumed in the fire, so the Jews were not to be wholly destroyed by the grievous calamities they were to be involved in, but to come out purer from the furnace of affliction, as gold and brass out of the fire.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
1:4 And I looked, and, behold, a {e} whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness [was] about it, and from the midst of it as the colour of amber, from the midst of the fire.
(e) By this diversity of words he signifies the fearful judgment of God and the great afflictions that would come on Jerusalem.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
2. The vision proper 1:4-28
Ezekiel saw three things in this vision: living beings (Eze 1:4-14), wheels in motion (Eze 1:15-21), and a great expanse (Eze 1:22-28).
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The living beings 1:4-14
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Ezekiel saw within the opened heavens a great cloud blown toward him by the north wind with lightning flashing from it almost constantly (cf. 1Ki 19:11-13; Job 38:1; Job 40:6; Psa 29:3-5). Israel’s enemies had invaded from the north, so the implication was that an invasion was coming. He also saw a bright light around this cloud and something like hot glowing metal shining in its midst, evidently God Himself (cf. Exo 13:17-22; Exo 19:16-18; Deu 4:24; Heb 12:28-29). The biblical writers sometimes described God’s abode as in the north (e.g., Psa 48:2; Isa 14:13; cf. Mat 24:30; Mat 26:32; 1Th 4:17), and they often associated storms and clouds with theophanies (e.g., Job 38:1; Psa 29:3-9; Psa 104:3; Isa 29:6; cf. Exo 13:21; Lev 16:2).
As God had riveted the attention of Moses by showing him a bush that was burning but not burning up (Exo 3:1-15), so God captured Ezekiel’s attention with this vision of a burning cloud.